Monster Mayhem
by wolverinacullen
Summary: A series of one-shots involving any/all of the characters of Monster High. AU and Canon. Note: I have finally changed this from #1's summary four chapters later. Sorry about that.
1. The Constant To-Do List

_Hey guys. I guess I couldn't stay away long. I'm back and doing a bunch of one-shots now. Not planning on making them connected in any way and I really hope they won't do that on me. I might not update this every day but it'll be updated when I have the extra muse for it around the other stuff I'm doing or if I need a boost in muse, stuff like that. So, hey. I'm back. Enjoy._

**The Constant To-Do List**

It really should not have been possible to be running out of things the way they did. It always seemed to be something that needed to be replaced immediately, resulting in trips surpassing the weekly grocery trip. Strangely enough, it was one of the things Howleen liked doing the most.  
Clawd had the car at practice, and Clawdeen was still at school working on the sewing machines _where it was quiet._ While her brothers goofed around and made the living room into a petting zoo, Howleen quietly slipped into the kitchen with her hoodie zipped up and running shoes on, and picked up the ever-replaced stack of sticky notes from the magnetic bin. In a scribbled rush, she opened the refrigerator door and looked around, jotting down what she didn't see, and nearly bumping her head on the shelf when her mother voiced from the oven, "And your father needs some half-and-half for his coffee, and we could use some additions for all of your lunches, but no sweets." Harriet could voice all she liked, but she must've known they were going to get sweets.

Nodding, Howleen dropped the pen back in the basket and replaced the sticky notes where they had been, folding it backward so the sticky part wouldn't pick up the fuzz inside of her sweater pocket and stuffed it in along with her fist. "I need money."

Harriet glanced to her and sighed, "Give me my wallet."

She picked up the clutch wallet and passed it to her mother, nearly scowling at the refurbish job Clawdeen had given it. Her mother produced a handful of bills and folded them over, tucking them in the pocket of her sweatshirt and giving her a very pointed look under direct eye contact, "I want change."

Howleen nodded, jammed the other hand in her pocket and pushed the screen door open with her elbow. The smell of cooking food was reaching outside of the house and surely going to summon the pack strays in the neighborhood. She jogged around the garage and down the sidewalk before any more testosterone could interfere with her temper more than it already was. Reaching into the pocket of her torn jeans, she produced her headphones, untangled them slightly and plugged them into her ears. Walking was fine, she could pick up on all the scents of dinner being cooked and the animals scurrying around between the trees, but she didn't want to hear what she knew, inevitably, she would hear.

Salem shouldn't still have been divided, but it kind of was. And all things considered, the humans stayed on their half and they stayed on theirs, but every so often...

"Full moon freak!"

_That was just original enough to be a vampire's,_ she thought bitterly, resisting the urge to turn around and put her shoe to somebody's shin hard enough to break it.

"Turn around so we can see the free freak show!"

Blood blazing, she turned up her music just a little louder. The sound of a car wasn't just a sound, it was a feeling, and she could feel the speedometer increase until the car was up alongside her. Fists clenched, she prepared for a fight. Suddenly, a sleek, black car tore around the corner and made the car slam on their breaks. The hearse glided into a smooth stop nearly against the bumper of the human car. The automatic window descended and the venomous tone of Gory Fangtell's voice sliced through the air, "Excuse you, you're in my way."

"You're on the wrong side of the road!" the driver yelled, "You almost hit us!"

"Did I?" she mocked, "Would you like me to?"

An intense staring contest ensued that only the strongest of men wouldn't have cringed at. Just from the biting words that came from the vampiress, Howleen knew the boys were better off giving in off the bat, literally and metaphorically. Somehow, he held out for a few seconds under the homicidal gaze before he threw his car in reverse and pulled around her. Howleen lowered her gaze immediately and started off, only to hear, "Hey! Did I say you could go anywhere?"

She should've walked off and showed her who was in charge, but there was something about arguing with her- not even vampires in particular, just her- that made it seem like a really bad idea no matter how it happened. She swallowed the lump in her throat and approached the hearse window, looking up. A pale hand flicked out and knocked the hood off her head, "Maybe if you walked around with some pride, they wouldn't walk all over you."

It was the most endearing words she had heard from the other girl, even as harshly toned as they were. She blinked, unsure of how to proceed with reacting to it. She shifted, practically showing off how pretty she was and how her gorgeous, expensive car looked so much more comfortable than going on foot. "Where are you going?"

"The store," Howleen muttered.

The lock popped and Gory tapped her perfectly black-manicured fingers against the ledge, "Get in loser, we're going shopping."

Brows raising in surprise, she rounded the front of the hearse and slid in the passenger seat. The locks were clicked shut immediately. Howleen sunk down in her seat, refusing to put her seatbelt on as she glanced sideways at the other female every few seconds. The vampiress turned her car around and headed back in the direction she'd come.

"Where's your boyfriend?" she muttered.

"Casketball," Gory replied, "same as your brother."

"Why aren't you fearleading again this year?"

"Because I didn't want to. I'd rather remain friends with Cleo than hate her any more than last year made me hate her already." She glanced back to Howleen, the corners of her deep red lips twitching slightly, "What? You thought just because we can be bitches to each other that it's not endearing? I've made her cry, she's made me cry, we're even. I probably wouldn't kill her if I had the chance anymore."

It wasn't a huge revelation, but it was enough to make Howleen doubt her driver a little less. She sunk down in her seat and watched the scenery go by. The vampiress didn't seem content with silence; her fingers twitched toward the radio, but considering her guest, retracted.

"Do you do this a lot?" Howleen muttered, attempting to keep the conversation afloat, "Pick up random kids off the street and take them places? Do you think I'm going to, like, bend over backward to give you my blood now or something?"

Gory laughed out loud, "Please. I wouldn't drink your blood if you were the last possible thing to keep me alive. No offense, but you dogs taste _horrible_. Almost as bad as elemental, _ugh._ Earth elementals are the only ones who don't taste as bland as their element. Don't even get me started on _dragons_."

Her lips threatening to turn up in a smile, Howleen glanced to the older female with a little bit of interest, "What about dragons?"

"I swear to God, Satan and every other force in the universe, they are worse than four alarm hot sauce. You think you're going in for a bite on a dragon? Oh _hell_ no. One drop and you are drinking a lake instead."

The small smile that had been threatening Howleen's lips crossed them as they pulled into the parking lot. She paused, glancing to her out of the corner of her eye as they pulled into a parking spot, but the vampiress shrugged, "Go. I'll be here."

"Why'd you do this?" Howleen asked, pausing with her hand on the door.

"Because you caught a tough enough break trying to be something you weren't," the vampiress replied as if it was a simple thought, "I know you're not as old as me, Howleen, but when you get to be my age...let's just say that it's the effort put forth that matters more than the outcome sometimes."

For the first time, the wolf pup noticed how the coldness in the vampire's eyes was only surface-deep. They glinted with a volume of knowledge and understanding that, once she realized it was there, instantly explained all of the intimidation her gaze seemed to cause. It wasn't that Gory's words were biting, it was that they were true.

"Am I still a lunar loser?" she asked.

Gory rolled her eyes, "Of course you are. You'll always be. But I do have to admit...your cheeto-puff hair suited you better than this."

Cheeks flaming, Howleen bolted out of the car and retreated to the sound of the vampire's laughter becoming joined by Catty Noir on the radio.


	2. Stained Glass Eyes

_**Stained Glass Eyes- Brory**__**AU**_

It was a perfect autumn day when everything changed. It was my senior year and everything was perfect; I was more than qualified to get into my dream school and we had the money to fund the full four years and then some, we were about to renovate the house so Michelle could move in with me for college, and it was Friday. I would have my acceptance letter by Halloween, no doubt, and everything would be golden while my other idiot classmates rushed to get in. No, I really wasn't lying, I went to a school full of idiots. When I was young, my parents could only afford public school, but I was young when they came into money. I wanted to cling to the friends I had. Little did I know within the next decade I'd leave them all because all they would do was hold me back. There was only one thing that the plebeian class held to that I agreed with; it was lonely at the top.

I walked into English to find him there. He was lounging on the beaten maroon cushions of the bubble chair in the corner, his feet up on the foot rest like it was meant to be used for, his sleek red earbuds plugged into our mandatory laptops and his unbuttoned red dress shirt falling open to reveal his black undershirt. He didn't look up to meet my eyes, but the first instinct I had was that he'd been picked up from private school and dropped off somewhere else. No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than his eyes lifted, and I stopped like a deer in the presence of an approaching bright light.

They were vivid blue, more blue than the midsummer sky in the middle of the afternoon. When he smiled, my throat clenched beautifully; his teeth were capped seamlessly into fangs. I could feel my own temporary synthetics pressing the backs of my lips in an unconscious eagerness to reveal them. He shifted to sit up, quirking his dark brows suggestively. It took me a serious heartbeat to realize we had silenced the others with our staring. Silently, I crossed the room, pulled the small, leather arm chair away from the wall to seat myself by him and placed my bag at his feet. His eyes darted down, lips closing over his sharp teeth with the same devious little smile somehow still in place. I picked up my numbered computer and crawled into the opposite chair, "I would've remembered seeing you before."

He sat up and leaned forward to examine my mouth. Quietly, he chuckled before his glorious eyes darted up to meet mine again, "Leave it to me to wander into the territory of the only other Sang in Chicago."

When people talked about love at first sight, they had never described it like this. My eyes grew warm and misty, and I felt my lips press together and turn up into a huge, understanding smile. Chills plunged down into the center of my gut while warmth radiated out from it, leaving me somewhere between screaming, crying and leaning forward to give him my soul. There was not supposed to be another being like me in the world, but there he was. In all his glory, in all his wonder. The shock of the encounter, especially with a being of the opposite sex, had robbed me of my intelligent thought process. There was a very large chance he wasn't going to be the subject of an _Iris_ cover, but just the thought alone that someone else was transcending the peasantry around me, making my existence a little less desolate...it was definitely a subject I understood. Michelle was the only other person who had done that for me.

"Bram," he said as he offered a hand.  
I slipped mine into his, "Gloria."

...

He was my little secret. He was the most precious gem of my lifetime and it was the moments that we could be alone together that made my life worth living. I had spent all of my life as a believer in karma, thinking that I knew that if I played their game long enough, I would be able to rewrite the rules. It was true, as far as I had come, but something had changed as soon as we had occupied that same space together. He was my opposite in as many considerable ways as it could possibly be; where I only voiced myself when I knew I was right, he voiced whatever the hell he liked. He had nerve, his every word was laced with passion and intensity that most people found to be unbearable. We drifted off from my friends' table to sit alone under the scrutiny of the people unworthy of our presence. He was wild, from his shaggy, bleached locks to his patent leather shoes. He didn't belong with these people. We didn't belong.  
The most important piece of our relationship was something I had known that day and continued to reaffirm my attachment and my affection for him; he was insanely, exponentially intelligent. He had insight on global politics, philosophy and how life should be lived in general that it would've been insane to argue with him- if we had more vastly differing opinions. Regardless, I had the sense that I might've been one of few people he would listen to.

"Not here," I whispered as he tugged me between the packed, tightly spaced bookcases in the library. My feet bumped the step ladder and he took the opportunity to pin me against the shelves for a kiss. He listened most of the time, but when it came to this...I didn't want him to. I slid my fingers up the front of his unbuttoned shirt and dragged him closer. He chuckled against my mouth and dropped his kissing to my neck. My arms wound around his neck in response, reveling in the tender pressure of his fangs on my skin. He could've broken skin, but instead he made sure I felt the pressure of his fangs against my vein, so I could feel it in my sleep, or at the telltale brush of breeze. There were stories about couples having romantic liaisons in the gym, in the halls or the stairwells out of the way of the cameras, and yet there we were, continuing the legacy in my quiet place. He gave the step ladder a push with his foot across the carpet and dropped the both of us down onto the carpeting. I tried not to huff in shock as he landed on top of me, his fingers roaming my skin through my clothes adoringly while we kissed.

"Where do you live?" he muttered between pauses for breath, "I want you to leave your window open for me. I wanna come see you."

"My bed squeaks," I muttered, blushing.

He grinned, "Did anybody say we were going to do it in bed?"

...

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Michelle asked as she caught me re-applying the Medusa Green lipstick after lunch. I glanced up at her while Bram remained totally unfazed. My best friend was just like us in soul, but far too lazy to be the walking stereotype. He'd started buttoning up his shirts, so I had started trying for him in return. We still hadn't gotten off to full period-wear yet, so a part of me didn't see her point. She glanced from him to me in a pointed look, leading me to shrug.

"I've heard how much you've been telling people off. For Christ's sake, you two are parting crowds like the fucking ocean."

"That's quite a nice thing for the people walking behind us," he commented. I smirked. She glared at him and flickered her gaze back to me, "Glory, this isn't...you don't act like this away from your blog."

Maybe she had thought at first that I was out to change him, but this kind of a relationship did not belong in some little Nicholas Sparks story. I hadn't known it then, but I had been out from the beginning to change myself. She was right. I had always had the brains that people knew to stop talking when I had something to say; they had heard me but they had never listened. I pushed out a chair and I met her gaze with my own, "I should've."

He glanced to her chair and smirked as if he already knew. She threw a grudging glance back to Mark and Jake, but then she slid into the seat just as we expected her to. People shot us glances. Mitchie turned around and gave them the finger.

"That's rather selfless of you," Bram teased. This time, she gave me a look as if expecting that I hadn't done my best-friend duties in explaining what an outstanding individual she was to my new boyfriend. Was that what they called it, really? It seemed so much more than a boy friend to me.

"Yes, well..." she replied, shooting me a glance, "I'm not her highness over here, but I'm not those bitches on the Pom-Pom squad."

...

"I don't think she approves of me," he murmured as he walked me toward my ride home. My stomach was tight with the knowledge that I was about to spring upon my mother not only my boyfriend, but where he lived. I was terrified. I didn't believe in mixing my happy life and my family, it was bad enough we had to endure the stupidity around us in our own personal hell. He caught my nervous gaze and met it with the calm irritation of his own. "Honestly. Do they bite? Because we might like each other if we can bite hello."

I squeezed his hand, drawing from his strength to keep myself afloat. He clutched me in return supportively and wandered up to the car. I tugged open the door and smiled to my mom as I slid inside, "Hey...there's someone I want you to meet."

"I have to get to work...?" She had begun her statement as a statement, but then realized he stood beside me. He shifted his bag and grinned, "Mind inviting me inside? Old vampire rule, just a formality."

Of all the reactions I expected of her- joy, irritation or complete disapproval among them, never did I imagine how she rolled her eyes and opened the lock on the back door, muttering, "Of course she picks the one with fangs."

He climbed in the back seat and tossed his bag over the leather, scooting into the space between us and extending an elegant, spider-ringed hand. "Hey, I'm Bram. I'd say I'm dating your daughter, but dating is kind of a pointless little formality eleven out of twelve months of the year. But I would like to take her out to a barbeque next weekend. My neighbors are having their in-laws for dinner..." His eyes flickered to mine and he broke into a grin, "They've had them marinating for a couple days now."

I laughed out loud at the cannibal joke while my mother sighed out loud; she definitely knew where her future grandchildren would be coming from.  
It was actually kind of funny, the more that I thought about it. I hadn't believed in all that silly love song crap until I met him. He had been the one, the point at which I had known had come somewhere between noticing his fangs and landing on the same Pierce the Veil song while on our mutual Pandora. It might've seemed a little bit rushed, but I had been the person who planned meticulously. I knew seven steps ahead of myself at all times until he came along. Maybe it was that same nerve that led him up to crack cannibal jokes in my mother's car and spur my best friend into flipping off the general masses, but he had a way of bringing out the most significant in people. Maybe it wasn't always the best, but...everyone else looked at the world through rose colored glasses. Bram's were some strange, sky-ocean-storm cloud collision of blue, and he was perfectly fine using them for good, or evil, or whatever seemed like a good idea then.

Sometimes, you just gotta go with it and let somebody else be your glasses.


	3. All's Fair in Love and Wipeout

**All's Fair In Love and Wipeout**

_God I hate/love tumblr. This prompt was going around on there that I responded to this morning- Imagine your OTP competing in Couples' Wipeout- and naturally, the thought went down the path of "What would happen if Bram and Gory decided to compete...and Cleo decided she and Deuce were going to try to do it better again?"_

_And thus, this was born._

Whether it was hubris or sheer denial, Field Day at Monster High had suddenly gotten interesting. Most activities were individual, and mostly the males participated in a show of testosterone, or the females in shows of defiance, but when it came down to the team obstacle course, everyone had flocked to watch the vampires compete. Most people chose to go in pairs of strength, or speed, or friendship; couples rarely competed together on the course, and yet not a singular soul was going to argue that Bram Devein and Gory Fangtell weren't going to knock it out of the park.

At the starting whistle, they were off, and the cheering was immediate. The pair charged down the sloped entry ramp and followed each other down the thin boardwalk over the mud pit below. Padded beams swung at them, met by the occasional duck and jump. For two relative unknowns as far as sports at the school had gone, their prior training was obvious.  
Cleo threw a glance to her boyfriend as they observed, her eyes flicking back with an equally unimpressed tone, "Look at Bat-niss Everdeen go."  
He caught her hand at the next platform, and together they jumped like frogs, propelled by the force of their mutual strength, from high platform to higher platform as they moved. She held him back, timing each jump perfectly, and onto the final course they went in record time. From the moving platforms, they dropped onto a solid one and began an ascent worthy of a military training field. Draculaura bounced on her toes, clapping and grinning while in time that seemed far too short, they ascended to the top and captured the flag necessary to win. A finishing whistle threw the crowd into a roar of thunderous applause.

The moment Cleo's head snapped around to look at her boyfriend, he began shaking his head. "No. Cleo, we are not going to...you're not dressed for this. Cleo. Cleo!"  
She held his sunglass-shielded eyes for only a moment before stalking off in the direction of the course. The vampires had no sooner descended the platform than Bram caught sight of the reluctant pair and forced himself to repress rather hysterical laughter. He glanced to his girlfriend and back to the competing couple, and her laughter was not so easily held back. "Don't break a nail, princess!"

Head back, shoulders squared, Cleo looked down regally at the lingering crowd. Deuce looked at his friends and called down, "Jackson, you got spare shades?"

The human boy nodded.

"Hold onto them."

The starting whistle blew, and Deuce started off in a run. Cleo, however, descended in a model walk. Snickers and whispered words trickled through the crowd with Deuce forced to wait up. Cleo's eyes remained focused on the winning couple, whispering to each other and trading mocking grins. Fury fueled by the sight, she ran down the boardwalk at half her full speed-

and was promptly smacked off by the padded beam, shrieking as she tumbled into the mud pit.

At first, every eye was wide with shock, until Gory burst into laughter so hysterical she clamped her hands over her mouth to try to muffle it. Laughter erupted from the crowd, yet Deuce raced to grab his girlfriend's hand and continue on. Cleo sat in shock, the dirt soaking into her bandages and clothes and she nearly could've cried. As her boyfriend punched out his hand, she grasped it, hardly processing his words before he, too, was sent sprawling into the dirt sunglasses-first. The fresh wave of dirt on Cleo's fashionable clothes made her shriek and drop her boyfriend's hand as if it were diseased. Her classmates were sent into even greater laughter, yet as she stood up and stared down at her sopping clothes, the vampire who had begun the ridicule paused to watch.

She was cold, she was wet, and she had severely wounded her dignity. Deuce rolled over and got up, closing his eyes and wiping off his glasses as best he could, as to him it was only collateral damage. Slowly, Cleo came around to the realization that if she intended to finish this, it needed to be on her terms. She tugged free a loose bandage and wiped his face and his lenses on a separate piece, discarding it as she replaced them to their proper place on his face. "Let's finish this."

He gave her a boost onto the ladder back to the boardwalk, and Cleo stood as proudly as she could while the laughter died down. To her surprise, the vampires watched in silent curiosity. Once Deuce was at her side, she bolted. She ducked and orchestrated little jumps to get across, praying that two didn't come at the same time. Of course they did, and she made a mad lunge to get to the end, throwing herself forward as if she were diving from a building and slamming into the padded platform. Deuce scooped her up and righted her quickly, their eyes meeting in surprise and muted desperation. Regaining her footing, she held onto his arm, "Count me down, Deucey?"

"Not a chance," he replied. He grabbed her waist and jumped with her. She yelped, landing on her knees as they dropped onto the oncoming platform. He raised her, waited, and did the same again. Slowly, the cheers behind them began again. He dragged her with a bit too late on the last, and they caught the edge rather than landing on it. He couldn't hold her and pull himself up at the same time, so he glanced to her and pushed on her belt, "Cleo, you gotta go!"

"Come on, Cleo!" she heard a voice from the crowd behind them, "What are you waiting for?!"

As if she had claws of her own, she dug her nails into the padding and pulled herself up, joined by her boyfriend. This time, he locked his hand with hers and leapt onto the last piece of the course. An outpouring of cheers made her glance back to realize that the voice who had called to her was none other than the vampiress waiting with her arms folded across her chest as if expecting to be impressed. Cleo looked up, trying to judge their distance, "There's no ladder."

Deuce held out his hands to cup her shoe. She paused, meeting his gaze behind his shades and nodded silently, "What about you?"

"I got it," he said with a shrug. She placed her foot in his hand and allowed him to boost her slowly until she caught the next. She pulled herself up on her own and waited for him as he jumped, caught hold and pulled himself up on his own. And the cycle they repeated again, hoisting themselves to the top one step at a time, until she, too, caught the flag and presented it proudly between them.

While she watched her friends and her aptly-titled followers burst into triumphant cheers, she glanced down to see the vampires roll their eyes and participate in muted little claps of approval. She turned to her boyfriend and beamed, "Great...so how do we get down?"

When they were on the ground and headed back toward their classmates, sticky and wet, something red ambushed her. She screamed and covered her face, only to be smacked with a fluffy towel head on. Freezing in place, she lowered the edge to find the vampires on the other side, and Gory's expression a little more than amused.

"You might not have won, but you didn't fail horribly. That's a lot more than I can say for some of them." Her eyes flickered to the course at the exact moment it seemed Heath and Manny were set to attempt their own run. "And as much as you would like to compete with me, you look disgusting and miserable. You need that more than I do."

There was no way in Ra's domain she was going to thank her after those words had been said, but Cleo didn't throw the towel back in her face. She simply nodded and wrapped it around her mud-soaked bandages like a flag of peace was drawn between them, though colored red instead of white.


	4. High School Never Ends

_I feel lazy not writing anything major while working on the novel, so here, 'nother one-shot. Starting tomorrow I might/probably won't post as frequently.  
I would apologize for making these all about Gory, but at this point I don't think the muse will let me._

**High School Never Ends**

Belfry Prep was like any other school. You had the jocks, you had the nerds, and then you had us.

Vinnie's cigarette smoke lingered in a perpetual haze in our corner of the cafeteria. The boys were discussing something about a game that had just come out, but my attention had wandered long ago. I chewed on the end of my straw while focusing past the haze and the fog caused by the cold rain piercing the hot pre-autumn afternoon. _This is ridiculous. Why in all hell am I awake at noon? It's noon. It's a sin to wake up before now, school or no school._

"We've lost her, boys," Vinnie proclaimed dramatically, "Why do the good die young?!"

Charlie picked up a french fry and threw it at him. I smiled to myself and brushed my bangs out of my face. "I'm thinking."

"_Ahh,_" he replied, drawing out the sound while his expression shifted to one that would've made a person less familiar with him blush. He wiggled his brows suggestively as he leaned up to smack the seat of his jeans. Plopping back down in his seat, he leaned forward on his leather-clad elbows, "About your stiff, or your stiff's stiff?"

Charlie seemed to find this hilarious, and he choked on a grape. Michael leaned over to smack him on the back.

"None of your business, you whore," I replied, plucking the cherry from the layer of whipped cream atop my sundae, "But if you're thinking about it, keep in mind I'm perfectly capable of clawing your eyes out."

Bram placed his tray down on the table and slid into his seat. If he had heard our conversation, he was pointedly ignoring it. He scooted in and, eyes glinting, leaned in to kiss me softly. I beamed, lifted my spoon and went to town on the ice cream before me. Pink slush was already pooling in the bottom, but the warm, liquid red dressing it was making it even more delectable.

"Why do they think we have to live on an entirely blood diet?" Michael asked, sticking up his spoon coated in red, "I'd love a nice, medium rare steak right now. You know, something where I can actually _taste the meat in it._"

"Didn't we just have a discussion about tasting meat?" Vinnie replied.

Charlie picked up a piece of broccoli and chucked it at him. It bounced off his nose and almost made me choke on my ice cream laughing. I took a sip of O positive latte and shrugged in Michael's general direction, "Because they think we're growing."

"Sideways, maybe," he muttered.

"Oh boo hoo," Vinnie replied, "Your queen is showing, Mike."

"I'd say fuck you, but I wouldn't want to give you any ideas, Ponyboy."

"Girls, girls, you're both pretty," I muttered. Bram's shoulders twitched with laughter. I swirled the warm, red blood around in my small bowl slowly, watching it trace patterns in the melting vanilla until it became pink. I dipped my spoon in the tiny area of red pooling in the bottom and drizzled it back over the vanilla. It rolled down the side and should've provoked interest, but like everything else, it only provoked contemplation.

What was the purpose of being so well-fed? Strength? Mental stability? Or was it simply a matter of over-saturation? Soak the rebellious little monsters in what they crave so they won't crave it anymore? Soak them in attention, because god knows being away from our parents was hell enough sometimes. Soak them in blood, so they won't go killing for anything but sport, and make the dorms co-ed while you're at it, so they can go at it like the bunny rabbits that they are and leave the summer scandals to Mom and Dad.

"You're thinking an awful lot today," Vinnie persisted, trying to draw a rise out of me.

"I'd ask if you were, but with all the smoke you're generating I can't tell whether it's coming out your mouth or your ears," I replied. He leaned forward to nudge my head, but I hardly budged. I glanced to Bram, admiring him against the hazy grayness. The pure, alabaster white of his skin, his silky golden hair, his highly kissable, very pink lips...sometimes Vinnie was probably right, I did think about him too much. Could anyone really hold it against me? He made me so...curious. Unfortunately for us, we were gifted with the preternatural intelligence to ensure that we knew how tedious being alive really was, but he removed so much of the bleakness from my existence that it was almost painful to consider what my world would be without him. Actually, it was quite painful, sometimes I just had the inclination to lie to myself that way.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked me, abandoning the soul-staring he was doing into his food much the way I had into mine for actual conversation.

"You," I replied, "and how painful my existence would be without you."

His lips turned up in a small smile. Vinnie pantomimed gagging. I ignored him.

"I love you too, you know," he replied. "More than all the world has ever known of love."

"Christ, here we go," Vinnie murmured, yet moved to the opposite side of the table with our friends as if by habit. The three of them isolated the two of us, giving us the space necessary for a moment to ourselves. Jordan Baker was right, large groups were so much more intimate than small parties.

Bram's fingers linked through mine gently, and he traced his thumb over the back of my hand slowly. "What do you say we ditch free period, hm? Run into town...I'll get you that pumpkin spice latte you like so much, and we'll go run by the record store for a while, just to browse..."

It sounded gorgeous. Everything with him sounded gorgeous. When I complained about how badly my shoulders ached after class, he offered to massage them for me, or when I refused, vowed that we would go for a couples' spa day at our earliest convenience. My every grievance was met with his sympathy, my every thought with all of his love. I thanked my luck profusely every day of my existence that I was able to share with him, because even if the day should come that we could ever come apart...the highlight of my life would've been with him. The best times of my life had been with him. He made it so easy to forget how difficult muddling through life in a world filled with bland, boring people and bland, boring tasks could be.

"I'm tired," I replied.

Tired was a different word for us, not the physical tired that accompanied most students home, but for me my exhaustion was purely emotional. Jump through hoops for everyone you don't love, while everyone you do will have the decency to lower them for you. He squeezed my hand supportively and nodded, "I know."  
Sometimes I thought it would've been easy to just lay down and die. We could just decide not to get out of bed one day. One day could become two. Sure, our bodies would want to move to retain the nourishment, but after a couple days of that...it would be easy. But he raised a hand and tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear as if he sensed the true strength of my exhaustion and knew better than to try to use his words to convince me that it was worth waiting out.

"Sometimes you scare me," he murmured, his tone lowered even more. "I can see things in your eyes that you don't say to me."  
He knew better than to ask if I was afraid of moving on from here. The politics would always be the same unless they shifted now. I had to change things while I still could, I had to try to get into a college and get out of this school. I wanted to make something of myself, but I was, at my deepest heart of hearts, _afraid_ of that fame. I was afraid that the farther I drifted, the less I would have to live for. His hand held tightly to mine, reminding me that he would be present for as long as I kept him there with me. He would not be the one to release me, nor would I him, so we were at a perpetual impasse. We would take our sweet time growing old, and we might never change even then. It was terrifying to think that perhaps we would really live our lives never moving, never really growing up. We were already so far above them that it wasn't him that terrified me, it wasn't myself, it was everyone else around us. Adam and Eve had been the most lucky beings in the world to have the vastness of the earth to themselves, because they had no one else to destroy them.  
Or at least, Lilith didn't care about him enough to.

"I'm going to be alright," I replied, smiling lightly at his concern.

"But you're not now," he continued. If he were an outsider, he would've been scowling. His brows would've been knit, and he wouldn't have understood, but he was Bram. His expression was soft, because he knew completely well that everything in life was bleak, lonely, and punctuated by moments of staccato joy.

I shrugged, "I am with you."

It was the only truth I cared to vocalize. He could've broken me with that fact, he could've twisted me around his little finger until I was wound so tightly I was in pain and not let go. The fact that he hadn't, wouldn't, and maybe even couldn't was the largest thing setting him apart from everyone else.

His smile returned, more genuine this time. He ran his fingers slowly against the back of my hand before raising my knuckles to his lips. "I love you."

I couldn't help but smile in return and give his hand a tender squeeze, "I love you too."

"Can we resume our weirdo food talking, please?" Vinnie interjected, "Come on, you're rotting out my sweet fang here."

He leaned up, breaking the closeness of contact but not the hold of our hands, "Fuck you, Stoker."

"I would, Devein, but you're not my type."


	5. High Society

**High Society**

New Salem High was a six-hour prison. Half of first period went the way it usually did; most of the class nodded off while Chad attempted to build a pencil fort on top of my coffee cup, but the second it hit nine AM, every head in the school snapped up- mostly because of the sound that ripped through the closed windows. Tires were screeching in the parking lot almost like someone was about to get into an accident. Everybody looked up in time to see a sleek, powerful-looking muscle car round the bend into the lot quickly and park, fluidly, directly in front of the classroom. For the first time in four years, something actually woke me up besides coffee. I sat up, propping up on my elbows as Chad raised up in his seat, "Who is that?"  
The driver's side door glided upward rather than opening outward, and anyone with a view unanimously uttered the same name at the same time. "_Lilith?"_

She had to have been in her glory. Thin, black sunglasses like something out of the matrix, hair let down and totally restyled, and a new wardrobe to go with the new car. I didn't get jealous over other peoples' vacations, but hers actually looked like it was some kind of beneficial. And her boots were going to kill me with their beauty. She headed over for the window and jammed a key chain in the window to pop the latch. Planting those beautiful army boots on the ledge, she climbed in rather ceremoniously. It took me a second to realize she hadn't made a sound, and our teacher even longer to realize that it wasn't a good idea.

"Van Hellscream," she replied in her _I-am-your-superior_ tone and sunk into one of the front seats. Her skin was sun-kissed gold and her hair was even blonder, probably as sun-bleached as the army bag she was carrying. Her style had always been in the weirdly amazing gray area of fashionable and practical, but it even seemed to evolve even more. She had on khaki military cargos, tucked neatly into her boots while her tiger striped shirt split into two sets of straps and shredded slightly against the backs of her shoulders. I leaned forward and nudged Chad with my elbow. The moment he noticed, he blurted it out to everyone. "Woah, Lilith, you got an ink?"

She cut her hair, I realized a little too late. It swished over the tattoo between her shoulder blades as she turned to look at him, "I did. I had a really nice past month with my family."

"Where'd you go, Cabo?" I tried to hold back laughing, but she didn't even seem to notice it.

"Arizona, actually," she replied, rolling a tanned shoulder in a half-shrug. "It's kind of nice to see you guys again."

Chad paused at the same moment I did. We looked at each other and back at her, but she didn't take back her words any. He rose a brow at me, asking silently if she was high. I flicked my eyes from him to her again; hell if I knew, but that was definitely not the Lilith we had to put up with on a regular basis. Even with the whole Halloween incident behind us, she hadn't exactly stayed close. After all, she was the one who tried to get our friends- and they were our friends first, by the way- killed in the first place.

When class was over, we tailed her to her locker. Chad leaned over my head, watching her clean out the few things locked up in there of hers until it was just books, like she had something to run from. I pushed him back before she could look our way. Instead of hanging back pacifistically like usual, he stepped away from me and walked around. "Chad," I hissed through gritted teeth, "Chad!"

He went up to her, shoulders back and confident looking, like he totally forgot that she was probably trained in twenty ways to kill him and make it look like an accident. I could've hung back and waited if I were any worse of a friend than I clearly already was.  
"What's going on with you?" he asked. Not a singular being seemed to notice anything besides how different she looked. It wasn't even that different, she just switched which half of her clothes were tighter than the other half. She shut her locker door and shrugged, keeping up that casual indifference that she held all through class. Either everything in the world had become incredibly disinteresting, or she learned how to act. "Nothing. You're the one acting weird at my locker."

"He's worried about you, Lilith," I cut in before Chad could make his case any worse for himself. "You're acting kinda Stepford."

There was a flicker in her eyes that I took note of. Chad's eyebrows knit together, confirming he had too, and he linked his arm with hers and led her down the hall and out the door. We had class around the side of the building, at least she and I did, but he walked us where no one else would bother listening to us. "Listen, we know about all that stuff...you don't have to keep anything a secret from us. I mean it's probably really difficult being the only person in your family that likes monsters, but hey, you said you had a nice time with them, right? Did they come around, or-"

"Put you on medication or something?" I cut him off. He shot me a look, not like he could think up a better explanation for her Stepford silence.

Her hand flickered up to her forehead and she pinched the bridge of her nose. "We didn't go on vacation. I went with them to be integrated into the Network."

It was my turn to take over questioning. "Network?"

She slowed her pace, shooting a look back toward the institutionalized little building before glancing to me. The facade was cracking fast. No matter what they'd done to her, they hadn't done it deep enough. "You're incredibly lucky, you know. To have parents who will let you cut and dye your hair, wear whatever you want, do whatever you want with your face..."

"What network, Lilith?" I repeated. The only thing that didn't change was her voice, that was the creepy thing. Even while everything else crumbled down like a chimney in a California quake, her voice remained bleak and desolate in a way that not even I got to.

"The other hunters," she said rather quietly. "People my uncle kept in contact with."

Chad immediately reached out to stop her, "Woah, your uncle's back?"

It felt like we both got thrown on a one-way ticket down memory lane, back to middle school. If I looked hard enough, I could still see the splatter-paint of purple on her skin in gym class. She pretended that she got beat up by some kid who lived on her block, a kid who didn't go to school with us, but we all kind of knew she was full of it. She had two huge, guy friends, even back then; who in their right mind would've still gone after her? And her uncle had been the single scariest guy we'd ever met, and we lived six blocks away from legitimate monsters.

"Not yet," she muttered, "but they're expecting him."

I wrung my hands, suddenly remembering being eight with her and watching her get torn away from the playground by her aunt and being carried to their car, kicking and screaming about how her dad let her play. I guess we had been young enough then to remember them, but we weren't now. She just looked sad, alone and very tired now.

"You can come stay with us," Chad suddenly said, very sharply. "It's been two years, he shouldn't be just let back into you guys's house like that."

The outside of my stomach felt coated in ice. She smiled, just a little, "I'm okay, guys. I went, I saw, I performed to their liking and now I'm here. I'm deprogramming, okay? Why do you think I still wasn't here for two days?"

I could imagine her driving around the monster side of town, watching the parents and the kids and fighting the urges they put in her. She was like some kind of comic book hero, thrown into something she never asked for and never wanted. Sure, we all understood that there was good and bad in the world, but her family took it to an extreme. Chad wasn't incredibly quick to buy it, but neither was I. What could we do but let her walk off?

I knew she was lying, and I still let her walk away.  
A few days later, I wished I'd done something.

Some things just couldn't be fixed. I went to the bathroom during Physics, just to wake myself up and clear my head, but there was really no escaping coming face-to-face with her. She must've been the last person to walk in, because I doubted anybody would've left her alone seeing her in the state she was in. She chopped off most of her pretty, golden hair and she was covered in bruises and scrapes. Scratches lined the insides of her arms, and her lower lip was split and a little swollen. Her bag was clutched to her chest like a bulletproof vest, her face was an unhealthy shade of red, and I hadn't felt this sorry for somebody since the second grade.

I always thought Lilith thought she was better than everybody until Halloween was over, then I realized she was just scared. Letting people in meant losing them again one day, just like her parents. I soaked a paper towel in cool water and got down next to her. She didn't even seem to notice me, so I tried humor, and tossed it on her face. She jumped, peeling it off and looking at me with surprise that was painful to look at. Her eyes were worse than her surprise. Her eyes were bright teal, even prettier now that she'd been crying, and she looked so heartbroken that she actually came off like a human being to me. There were still tears running out of her eyes, and I was torn between sitting next to her and telling her to wipe them off.

"That kid beat you up again?" I muttered.

Her hands were shaking, but she dabbed her eyes with the wet paper towel. God, she was going to need an advil when all of this was done. Her face looked so stressed with all the blood vessels around her eyes broken in little dots of red. I didn't want to think of how hard she cried before I walked in. I watched her wipe her face and thought, just for a second, that if I walked away I might never see her again.

"I want you to drive me home today," I said, "Chad can go home on his own. But when you pull in, you're not going unless it's to get your stuff out of your uncle's place, okay?"

Her arm flopped weakly onto the top of her bag like the muscle had given out. She looked up at me with eyes that scared me. She'd given up. I wasn't even with her ten minutes and I was so scared that she just wasn't going to see sense. She stared at me, first with exasperation and then with this silent, frightening understanding. "It's not that easy."

"Oh my god," I nearly hissed through my teeth. My hands snapped up instinctively to pull on my hair and I found myself lowering to my knees in front of her to beg. "Just kill him or something."

She laughed, just once at first, but then another bubbled out before she started to cry. A huge smile plastered on her face and she reached forward to take hold of my shoulders and pull me in close to her. "I can't," she whispered, "He's an ass, but he's my family."

I wanted to ask, but I didn't want her to answer. I wanted to tell her that she was valuable, even if they didn't see it and nobody treated her like she was much of anything. I could've told her that it was going to get better, that once she walked away, things would change, but we both knew that wasn't the case. That wasn't going to take back all the times they put their work above her feelings. It wasn't going to take back being hurt by somebody you loved, and it was never going to make people like her any more than they already didn't.

"If you don't believe me," I ended up saying, "Go to Cleo's and see."

She paused at that. I felt her arms shake as they wrapped around me, and she was hugging me on the bathroom floor. The last time she cried, I pushed her away, and it was the guilt of remembering that made me pull her closer.

I guess I might've done something useful, because two days later, Lilith Van Hellscream was pulled out of our class. I got a message on Facebook a couple days after that; Cleo's dad wasn't exactly a prize either, and neither was her sister, but they treated people with more respect than that. She went on to play spy for the enemy, and I guess it worked out well, because she never came back to New Salem High. Chad and I always wanted to go drive up to the Egyptian mansion on the hill at the end of the main street, wait until the gates open just to go see if she'd grown her hair back and kept her tan, whether she joined Cleo in spending her dad's money or if the mummies really accepted her or just let her by with free room and board.  
Any of that was better than what we'd been through, though, and there just might've been a little piece of me that was kind of happy Lilith wasn't...you know. Brainwashed.


	6. Playing Rough

**Playing Rough**

_As requested by vampychick- I've only just begun sweetie. A lot more will come in the future. I also know it's short; I've been writing the novel for the past four days quite well and I did a lot of work elsewhere today too, so you'll just have to forgive me being exhausted._

Nobody on their side of town had the money to cover going to clubs or exclusive, DJ-done parties. So once a week, they gathered in the back of Romulus's field of a backyard and someone set their laptop up to an amplifier.

It was the harvest moon, and Howleen was tossing her freshly straightened, freshly dyed hair. As if she needed to stand out from the bright oranges around her, she was wearing entirely vibrant colors. Reflective neon bracelets clasped around her wrists streaked the sky in their colors while she danced. They dipped into the teenage culture of the world around them while maintaining a resemblance of control. She could see couples all over each other if she averted her attention from the hypnotism of the sky above her, but she'd rather her other senses assaulted than her eyes. Music, enveloping every other sound, constantly changing pace so by the time she had gotten comfortable a beat, it became something else entirely. Her glow bracelets tracing legitimate streaks over the sky, her wolfen eyes picking up on the trails, and the scents of rain, grass, earth, pheromones, cologne, perfume, cotton, leather, denim, warm metal components, drinks, even her chemical-scented bracelets. They all managed to register at the same time.

With remixed music making her ears twitch, she didn't realize someone was dancing with her until she turned and nearly ran into him. Romulus's best friend, a large hand extended to her. She glanced over sheepishly, but Rom was too enthralled in his fair-haired date to notice and too far into his own life to care. Her eyes glinted as she returned her gaze to Deugi and clasped their hands together. On the wet grass, she spun in her sneakers and broke into her best moves. He laughed, low and deep like a rumble of thunder. She was surprised she heard it over the noise around them. It hung in the air between them and shifted, her eyes widening as he took over. Like a dance off, she paused to watch him as the realization struck her. _He was just as good as her._

The world seemed to melt off. She didn't know how long they'd been dancing, but eventually the mixes were changed. The round, yellow moon guided them off among the tall grasses and she sprinted toward it as if she intended to catch it. Leaping skyward, she took all of her effort and swung her body into a roll, tumbling down the steep slope into the ferns below. Deugi laughed, dropping onto the swell of the hill and brushing back his hair. "Hey Howleen. How come you don't hang out with us much?"

"I don't know," she replied, "Am I allowed to?"

He laid back, staring up at the moon. "Why wouldn't ya be? You just...I dunno. You don't seem like the type to be hanging out with all those girls."

Howleen wandered up to him and laid down close. "I am a girl."

"Yeah, but you're not like them." Like he'd forgotten the distance between them, he twisted a lock of pink-dyed hair around his finger. "Bleaching your hair I get, ain't nobody seen a wolf with orange hair before, but pink? Really? C'mon Howleen...where's the rough-and-tumble little chick that impressed Rom so much?"

Her eyes widened slightly in surprise, "I impressed Rom?"

"Of course you did. All that stuff, back when you were a freshman and the schools merged...you were tough. You stepped up. An' we were both pretty impressed."

Her head tilted sideways; she didn't dare infer what he was saying after the last little incident with Romulus.

"I like you, you little freak," he said, plainly and simply with a smirk on his face. "A lotta girls like you, they'd let a guy like me by. They put the whole wolf thing in the wrong perspective, but you...you're a little alpha in the making here."

She smirked, turning her face away as he got close. He tugged her across the grass by hooking his claws through her belt loops, making her laugh. When they were pressed closely together, the two-point-five year gap closed, her eyes flickered upward again. His intentions were quite obvious; if she wanted something, she'd have to get it herself. She shifted her elbow to support her head in her hand, "Why don't you want to be an alpha?"

His eyes flickered to her with a teasing appreciation, "Cause that's not my job."

She was utterly terrified of doing something wrong, yet she leaned in anyway. He shifted, propping his head up on folded hands. Any other she-wolf might've taken the time to appreciate every inch of bulging, strong muscle that was being flexed, but Howleen had enough to worry about than acknowledging how out of her league she thought she was. When she hesitated a few inches from him, he rolled his eyes and leaned up to close the distance, but he didn't kiss her. He merely nudged his nose to hers and waited, watching the surprise flit across her face before it flashed into irritation, "Deugi!"

He laughed, the rolling vibration of his chest shaking her slender limbs like branches in a strong breeze. She could still hear the faint music in the distance, coupled with howling that she made out to be something much more than she had wanted to stick around for in the first place. He paused in laughing to listen, shaking his head slowly, "Rom..."

"My parents are gonna kill me," she muttered, eyes flitting up to the moon's position.

He shrugged, "Alright. If you gotta go..."

She didn't _have_ to go.  
She didn't _want_ to go.

He closed his eyes and settled back, expecting her to go run off like a good little girl when, suddenly, she bit down on his lower lip with the force of a bear trap clamping down on a human finger. He started, her fangs releasing only when he'd bared his fangs and released a low, defensive growl. "Now you're awake," she said simply.

Deugi didn't know whether to be furious or impressed, so he settled for a mixture of both. Grabbing her by the loops of her neon pants, he dragged her back and ignored her protests as he pinned her beneath his arm. She twitched her unfolded ear and squealed as he bit the one flopped over, pressing her fists to her mouth in shock. Toes curling in her shoes, the pain of the bite made her bite down on her knuckles and revel at the warmth building in her blood- not furious warmth, but familiar warmth. He released her ear and dropped his face to her neck. The warm puffs of breath against her skin urged her to release her teeth from her knuckles, even if she knew the moment she did, he'd bite. When it never came, she shifted to look down at him. He seemed to realize how close he was to a friend's younger sister, his eyes still blazing with lycanthrope interest and somehow still in control.

The silent staring match lasted long enough to grow awkward. Cheeks flushing, Howleen shifted and nudged his nose with hers. It seemed to break him from his thoughts enough to make him smile. "How about we skip everybody else being pups and I walk you home?"

"I'd like that," she murmured. She nudged his nose to his again, a small smile dawning on her face, "Hey Deugi?"

He grasped her hand and pulled her to her feet, "Yeah?"

"I like you a lot too."


	7. Silly Love Songs

**Silly Love Songs**

_Gory's Journal: October the First, Two-Thousand and Thirteen_

_The first time they heard him sing, it was entirely because "Deuce had done all this" (this being an excessive amount of gifts including but not limited to huge vases overflowing with floral arrangements, stuffed toys, candy and the like) on Valentine's Day and out of sheer pride alone, Bram hadn't wanted to be overshadowed by Cleo's little attempt to dominate the holiday. It was the most lovely and intimate thing he had ever done for me in front of others, and it had made me despise Cleo's vanity a little less as a result. She could have all the material goods in the world, it would never change that my boyfriend went all the way to Portland to buy me the tea that I adored and we had spent the entire night curled up on the sofa watching the Child's Play saga on top of his little display. No, he had silently slid out of his seat amid the chaos of Cleo's little stunt and gotten down on one knee before me. If my unbeating heart had the ability to, I probably would've had a heart attack at the thought of him proposing, but he sang to me then. In that move alone, we had upstaged Cleo once and maintained our status in our little hierarchy._

Cleo's squealing pierced the air and commanded attention, her overzealous thanks to Deuce hardly appetizing. The sweet little gift tag around the red-tissue wrapped parcel of loose-leaf tea was attached with gift ribbon, and the scent of fruits and spices emanated from it even through its wrappings. "Thank you," I murmured, tearing my eyes from his delicate gift to his face. His brows were knit, attention diverted from my response to the dramatic one occurring across the room. I grasped his hand gently and gave it a tender squeeze. He glanced up, meeting my eyes and scowled, "I should've done more for you."

"It's perfect," I insisted, "It's all I wanted."

He nodded, his expression softening until his eyes were glinting deviously. "Maybe there is one more thing." He lowered himself from the seat to the floor. Every vampire in the immediate vicinity drew in a breath, attracting the attention of the others. My eyes flew open. Rather than drawing out a ring box, he held my hands and he met my eyes. "I'm so addicted to all the things you do, when you're going down on me in between the sheets, all the sounds you make with every breath you take, it's unlike anything when you're loving me..."

My breath released in a rush. A few of our friends shot him jealous glares at having come to the idea before they had, but he caressed my knuckles slowly and sang to me with all the passion of a man imploring. My heart felt swollen to the point of restricting my breath, and it was the most glorious, pleasant feeling I had ever experienced.

_Belfry Prep had been an arts academy, so naturally, the lot of us migrated away from the mainstream more than the rest of them. There was too much intellectual and philosophical discussion to be made of art to resist its pull long, and honestly? After you've been alive a few centuries, you need to start having fun to keep yourself in the mind set of living actually being worth your time._

_Probably the most fun I had in my time at Monster High was in their theater department. I was not the Hamlet Bram was born to be, but I was meticulous. I worked well with Mr. Where, and we put on our share of fairly organized productions together. The fall of the year I returned to the school, the musical was still under constant debate, and as much as we opted for Rocky Horror, Bloodgood had her limitations set on the sex rather than the cross-dressing mad scientist aliens. Even though choosing something generic was something we had planned on regardless, the auditions, though I didn't know it at the time, were anything but. At this point, I don't remember what it was we chose, only what he did for it._

_Of all the times Bram had impressed me; defending the both of our honor, simply giving attention and caring so deeply for me as he did so well, I couldn't say I was entirely surprised that he planned to audition for the show Mr. Where was allowing me to co-direct. He sat beside me while we watched the auditions, whispering his opinions as he always did, and at his turn...I can't describe the way he acted as anything short of magical._

The glory of standing before her outweighed any other satisfaction. She could hold her excitement behind a mask of gathered indifference all she liked, but her lovely eyes betrayed her. He waited, smiling crookedly in her general direction, until the entire room had silenced. He drew in a deep, composed breath, and released it in an exhale of adoration.

"You'd think that people had enough of silly love songs, but I look around me and I see it isn't so. Some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs...and what's wrong with that? I'd like to know..."

It had been so long since they had given a public display of romance to each other this way. At Belfry Prep, their love was commonplace; with mates, vampires were naturally affectionate, and they had not been the only couple of their kind. Monster High was diverse, and indirectly competitive. The expressions of shock upon their classmates' faces surprised to the gesture as opposed to impressed. Her eyes widened, fangs sinking gently into her lower lip. Though his confidence betrayed nothing, he didn't dare pause to register if she was displeased. Slowly, the surprise and self-consciousness melted away to an expression of bliss. Her eyes lowered, cheeks colored, and raised again sheepishly. He would've belted out in Broadway for her at any point. The blessings of the digital era were raised to record the exchange, and it was very quickly drawing attention.

By the time he silenced himself to their standing ovations, his better half included, they could vaguely hear Cleo's frustrated shriek across the campus.

_He sang two different songs before summoning me for a duet. Needless to say, Mr. Where appointed him male vocal lead and allowed me to trade my position for female lead. Draculaura was quite impressed, though I couldn't say her friends were as well received. Such is life, one can't please everyone._

"Hey, Gory," Toralei called from across the stage. The vampiress raised her eyes from her notebook to look at the usually mischievous lycanthrope feline. "Break a wing," the cat said sincerely, minus her usually hint of mocking malice.

Gory knew a kindred spirit when she saw one, and nodded silently in return. "Don't forget to drop a sandbag during Cleo's number. She should be used to Egyptian sandstorms by now."

Catching wind of their devious exchange, her boyfriend leaned over the bench she was perched on to wrap his arms affectionately around her shoulders. "You are a horrible, horrible influence on me," he murmured in her ear before giving it a little nip. "And to think I sang love songs to you."

She beamed up at him sweetly, "Of course I am, love. Would you have it any other way?"

He grinned, malice glinting in his eyes as he took her hand. She slid her journal into her bag and stowed it away beside his. "Time to go dethrone the queen."

"As we always have," she purred in reply. The house lights went down on their rehearsal, and she waited at the corner of the curtains for her moment of triumph to arise. What better way to spend eternity than trading silly love songs and sabotaging the competition?


	8. If I'm James Dean, You're Audrey Hepburn

**If I'm James Dean, You're Audrey Hepburn**

They had the kind of relationship everyone romanticized and no one really wanted.  
Her parents were dead, so she lived with her uncle. And he refused to acknowledge that she had even brought up being interested in him, let alone went to see him. If he brought her home, there was always some kind of weapon on display, and he knew that should she trip and skin her knee, he'd be blamed for it. It was a lot of risk to take for a girl, but be it out of arrogance or genuine interest, he did it anyway.  
His mother didn't like her much either. She thought she wasn't good enough for her baby boy. She thought she might be out to hurt him, even kill him, and she knew any time they spent together at his place would be met with a lot of outspoken hostility. She said she never minded; it wasn't like she got a lot of peace at home anyway.

They spent a lot of time out together where nobody would see them. He went back to Monster High and hit on girls, and she knew about it, and she went back to New Salem High and waited for him. He knew about that too. There was an insufferable amount of loyalty in their relationship that dragged them both down under the possibility of its severity, but neither of them seemed to have the heart to spare themselves the tragedy.

They spent a lot of time in his car. She didn't have her own, but there wasn't much better than having a boyfriend with a hearse. Sometimes he liked to lay with her just to feel the very mortal warmth coursing through her body. He never left his bite marks on her neck or anywhere else that might've been visible on a regular occasion. He liked to make her blush when he went in for them, since she didn't blush at very much else.

There was rain. Soaking, pouring, invigorating autumn rain. He picked her up from school since she didn't have a ride. They pulled off in the park together and crawled into the back seat. He wrapped his jacket around her shoulders and let her hair down over it. He always thought they were beautiful together, all of her white-gold purity against all of his raven and crimson corruption. They were yin and yang and they clashed together on the soft leather seats so wonderfully. She told him once he was the only person she had ever let hover over her; she never liked relinquishing dominance to anyone. He crawled on top of her while her golden hair fanned out around her head like a halo and he kissed her pale, pulsing neck. Her fingers linked behind his head and slipped gently over his shoulders. His fangs kept brushing her tender skin in pace with the rising and falling of her chest. The thudding of a too-human heartbeat scared him sometimes. At some point, that would end, and even though the length of her lifetime wasn't very long for him, he wasn't sure if he wanted to stay around for it just to watch it come to an end.

"Val?" she nudged him gently.

His amaranth eyes rose to meet her teal ones. Her bemused smile reached them and she ran her fingers softly over the buttons of his shirt. "Distracted?" He loved it when her voice took on that teasing purr.

He ran his fingers gently over her skin. "Did you ever think about it, darlin'?"

Maybe it was the way his shoulders slumped, or the patterns he traced against her collarbone, but she seemed to know exactly what he meant without having to explain it further. Her delicate brows furrowed and she let him continue tracing her skin while she thought it over now. "My family would probably hunt me down and kill me themselves."

Anger flared up in the center of his chest and he let out a breath. "You think I'd let them?"

"No, but I think they'd kill you too if you got in their way." Her eyes met his and she laughed, but it didn't reach those baby blues. "I know. Mortality is tragic. We have time." Her arms shifted around his neck, bringing him closer. He kissed her warm lips softly. Of course there was never a mortal alive who planned on dying young, save for the ones who did it themselves, but he had been alive long enough to know it didn't have to be planned to happen. Mist caused the windows to fog over on the outside of the car. The minutes on his dashboard clock never matched up to the time of her heartbeats.

"Hey, Val?" she asked after a moment. "When I graduate...if you're done by then...you wanna go somewhere?"

He almost forgot the freedom of mortals of a certain age. He shifted his chin against her chest and watched her stare up at the interior roof. "Does the place you have in mind have a lot of sun?"

Her eyes took on a mischievous glint. "Maybe, if you think that would get us away from the rest of the world."

"There's always Russia," he muttered. "They don't grant extradition to the United States."

"Cold and snow," she laughed, "Yeah, perfect for you. You can't feel temperature."

He rolled his eyes, "If anything, I'm more sensitive to it than you. You can generate your own body heat."

She ran her fingers through his bangs, combing them out of his face. "You like absorbing my body heat?"

He nodded. He should've seen it coming, but suddenly she had knocked open the door and spilled him out into it. He landed in a puddle with a harsh splash, the cascade overhead quickly seeping into his clothes and through his hair. She laughed out loud, but crawled out and bumped the door shut with her hip. Her eyes teased him even more than her beckoning. He let her take off in a head start before he shot out of the puddle and tackled her into the sopping grass. She screamed like a little girl as she was soaked, "Jesus freakin' Christ, Val!"

He rolled her on her back. She gasped out loud. Water splashed across her shirt and jeans and began soaking in. He could see the edges of a lacy black bra under the button down shirt and it made his eyes glint wickedly. Her hair stuck to her neck, but she pushed him off. He pulled her back down. "Valentine, I swear to god!"

He picked her up and boosted her over his shoulder. She kicked and smacked his back in protest, but no matter how strong her threats became, he carried her off to the retention pond anyway. He kicked off his shoes at the edge and leapt in with her in tow. Instead of shrieking, a peal of wicked laughter left her lips and she sent a tidal wave of a splash in his direction, thoroughly soaking him the rest of the way through. They were the kings of crazy, stupid deeds, and he splashed back and soaked her completely. Her hair darkened as it soaked, sticking to her neck as she bobbed in the steadily increasing water. It was only when peals of lightning began to flicker across the sky that they climbed out, both equally soaked, and ran back for the car. He grabbed blankets out of the back, though they both knew they would be cold for the duration of the ride back into town.

"Do you think if we stand here long enough, lightning will hit us and we won't have to go back?" she called over the pounding rain.

He pulled open the driver's side door and threw a blanket over her seat and another against the console before doing the same for himself, "Just get in the car, Lilith."

Instead, she threw her soaking boots in on the floor, followed by the soaking designer shirt. He paused for a moment, watching her discard her jewelry in the cup holders and leave her wet hair hanging free. Her slight makeup was running and she had never looked more beautiful than she did right then. Pitching her soaked socks in as well, she slammed her door and ran. Of all the crazy things she had ever done, he could not fathom how insane running around half naked in a field made her seem. Thunder grumbled and crashed, like a cymbal following an afterthought and the clouds flickered again. "Lilith," he called out, "Get back here."

She twirled, her damp hair leaving her skin. Another grumble. Another flash with more force. Exasperated, he dashed after her and pulled her close, breaking her pointless dance. Rain was not the only water on her face. He sighed. Her arms wound tightly around his neck, the distance closed giving away how badly she was shaking in her partially clothed state. He pressed her closer, trying to generate some heat of his own, but all his soaking shirt managed to do was catch her tears. It might've been very reckless of them to do everything they were doing, but it would've been considerably more reckless of him to leave her alone in the state she was in.

He scooped her up and brought her back to his hearse. They crawled into the back and laid down on their blankets with the heat on full blast to dry their clothes. His fragile, hopeless little human girl pressed herself close to him and forgot momentarily that she had the ability to gain her own freedom. It would've been an abomination to make her what he was, but he couldn't stop the thought from crossing his mind again. And again, ten minutes later. And again after that. The thought might never stop plaguing him, but he couldn't bring himself to end the warmth, the steady pace of her heart, or the promise that one day she might be his end. It was the kind of challenge he wanted to accept, the kind of thing he wanted to pretend was a challenge. They both knew there was no singular one of them without the other anymore. All they were doing was biding their time, trying to be as reckless as possible together.


	9. Little Talks

_**Little Talks, A Bram and Gory Short**_

_Also posted on my rp tumblr  
I'm prolonging the inevitable with what else I'm writing, so here, more otp for everyone. Not like I don't shove enough down your throats but *shrug*_

Being without him was enough to give her physical withdrawals. After a few centuries, it just felt commonplace to have him at her side through most everything. Monster High had done little in the way of separating them at first, but as the second year rolled around and their schedules changed, the time between classes became less and less available. Anyone who knew Gory knew her temper flared when particularly upset, so naturally, even the vampires had left a wide berth around her seat.  
The chair glided beside her glided backward silently. Immediately, the scowl faded from her scarlet lips. Her dark eyes darted to him and flickered back to her notebook in silent approval. He waited until Rotter's lecture had started to slip his notebook between them.  
I'm sorry I was late. Apparently the headmistress thought it would be in my best interest to diversify my schedule.  
I hate it here. Gory scrawled back, her writing more slanted and rushed than his elegant penmanship.  
His lips twitched into a small smile. You don't hate it here. You hate Cleo de Nile for reasons unknown to me and you hate being away from me. You seem fine otherwise.  
She shot him a look that he refused to acknowledge. I am not going to give you the response you're looking for if you're going to smirk at me like that.  
His pearly teeth flashed in a brief open smile, but he replied kindly. I love you.  
She sat back, satisfied. He waited for her to respond, the steady tapping of her pen on the edge of her notebook keeping the time. He counted sixty seven pen taps and three slow heartbeats before she leaned in to write her reply.  
It sucks waiting, doesn't it?  
Instantly, he responded. _Take your time, love. We have all day…and I can make you wait all night.  
We have eternity.  
That we do.  
Don't tempt me.  
I wouldn't dream of it._  
Burgundy eyes met garnet ones. He sighed lightly and placed his pen down between their notebooks. Stealing a glance toward the front of the class, he leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to her faintly throbbing pulse. "I love you."  
She waited until he withdrew to lace her fingers gently with his. "I love you too."

…

Lunch was a mixture of students feverishly scrambling to do their homework, friends mulling around their lunch tables and slackers sneaking off to play sports outside. And yet, among those slackers outdoors, sat a couple beneath the large shadow of a tree. They shared the earbuds of an iCoffin and a mutually packed lunch while they leaned on each other. Observers could note how he supported her head on his shoulder to read over her, or the way she slowly turned the page to give him plenty of time to finish. They were nearing the climactic resolution of her novel when she snapped it shut at a chapter break and turned her eyes upward to his face. "Why do you like bands no one has ever heard of?"  
"Is this a trick question?" he teased, kissing the top of her head. "You've heard of them."  
"I mean outside of us. Books we read, music we listen to…has this generation really grown so collective-minded? They worry so much about their individuality and yet not one person can tell me something John Steinbeck wrote besides Of Mice and Men."  
"East of Eden," Bram relayed instinctively.  
"Exactly."  
He laughed under his breath and nudged the open snack bag toward her. "They're still children. They'll learn. It takes time." He paused for a moment, glanced to her and broke into a suddenly wicked smile. "That's why you don't like Cleo, isn't it? She can't hold a scintilating conversation, so she's immediately useless to you."  
"I wouldn't say _useless_," Gory replied, crushing a cookie under her fang. "Obtuse, maybe. But not useless. She's pretty."  
He laughed under his breath. "Yes, what an accomplishment."  
Her eyes lifted to him and she popped a cookie between his lips. "You're spoiled with a girlfriend who doesn't treat you like a living handbag. Of course you're going to be biased. I'm sure Deuce isn't the brightest bulb in the package either."  
"I've seen him play casketball. I know he isn't."  
She laughed out loud before clasping a hand over her mouth. Their commentary went entirely unnoticed to everyone but each other, but they wouldn't have traded that for anything. Sometimes going unnoticed had its advantages.


	10. Sleepovers Bite

_I finished my novel so classic horror fanfic for you all yay_

**Sleepovers Bite**

If her _friends_ had seen her now, they probably would've removed her from the situation before it grew tempting. At least two of the girls on the floor had paper cuts from flipping pages in their yearbook and the scent was wafting through the air much to the delight of Gory Fangtell's senses. Their giggling pierced the sound of the music she was using to drown out their pleasant memories, but much like Frankie, the leader-house-founder-being whose name she'd already forgotten reached out and brushed her bangs away from her eyes. The vampire stiffened, eyes glinting dangerously close to reverting to their natural color. She finger-combed them back into their proper position over her forehead and gave the girl a questioning glance.

Sororities were pointless little institutions. That was what she had told Frankie when the peppy, all-inclusive female had reached out to her to join the Frightengale Society. They were meant to include the pink-loving, domestic conformists that made up a chunk of their gender, not girls like her. Offhand, in front of the boys, no doubt, she had stated the only reason she would join a sorority would be to recreate the movies their frat boy counterparts loved so much.

As soon as they had been out of earshot, Valentine had commended her for her brilliance. And that was why she was hanging upside down off a white leather couch in a very neon little sitting room. Fluffy pillows inscribed with verbs sat on every visible surface as well as being strewn around the rainbow yarn carpet. It was almost enough to make her physically ill. _I am sitting in the middle of a goddamn skittles container,_ she thought in the general direction of her counterparts, _You both owe me infinitely._

_We'll come through,_ Bram replied before Valentine could voice his impending witty retort.

"Your skin is so..." the girl said. God, she should've been named Barbie. She was blonde, typically pretty with that size zero flatness that was supposed to be attractive. Valentine mentally snorted. The smirk that crossed her lips carried dual meaning. "Tepid?"

Confusion flitted across the blonde's face, but she nodded. "I was going to say cold, but yeah."

"It's cold in here," Gory replied. She shifted to lay properly against the sofa, propping up her purple and black striped fluffy socks on a faux denim pillow embroidered with the word LOVE in all caps and a peace sign in the center of the O. "You insist on having the air conditioning on in October, for some strange reason."

Barbie's eyes widened in shock and she seemed to remember she wasn't in the sunbelt anymore. "I'm sorry! I keep forgetting you're native!"

If she could've slapped herself and publicly disgraced them for their mortal idiocy, she would've. Instead she pressed her lips together and folded her fingers together over her stomach. The blonde's friend crawled over and presented the book to her, pointing to a pair of females among the girls in the cheerleading ensemble. "There we are! State champions, three years running! We made varsity early."

"Congratulations," she replied, a hint of interest amid the aloof tone. It encouraged the other female to continue speaking about their many victories, which spiraled off into the teams' wins they attributed to themselves, and though she glanced at the clock and found only ten minutes had passed, Gory felt like she had just endured a lifetime.

There was a dull thump, like a branch snapping against the outermost wall. The speaking female silenced for a moment before calling out, "Hey, Jen? Did you hear that?"

"It's just the wind!" the Barbie girl called back. Gory made mental note of her name as she shifted to sit up. "Hey, girls...do you like scary stories?"

"Not me," the cheerleader said, "I get the creeps easily."

"How many of you guys saw Scream?" Gory asked, propping her elbow up on the circular cushion that had been under her back.

The only brunette of the group looked up and smiled. "I love horror movies."

Jen-slash-Barbie returned with popcorn and a shockingly bright grin. "Ooh, we should watch some! Who likes the Ring? Besides Phoebe, of course."

Gory's eyes glinted with delight. She sat up, completely ready to discuss the cinematography of one of the most classic contemporary horror films to date, when the doorbell rang. Her disappointment flitted across her face, but the cheerleader at her feet abandoned the yearbook with a gentle thump and scrambled to her feet, "You guys talk, I'll get it."

"Chicken!" Jen called after her. Gory almost felt apologetic as she smiled to the blonde. Almost.

"Excuse me," she heard the velveteen Southern tone purr to the innocent, naive mortal at the door. "My car battery died and my phone was chargin', you wouldn't happen to have a mechanic around, would ya?"

After a momentary delay, she caught a smitten, "No," before a series of nervous, flustered giggles. "But you can use our phone. It's in the den...hey Jen?"

"Yeah?" Jen called back, glancing to Gory as she smirked, having very obviously listened too.

"Do you mind if a couple guys come use the phone?"

Couple? Gory practically bounced in her seat with glee. Those two had a penchant for theatrics unlike most theater majors. She heard Valentine murmur to her companion in a sugary sweet tone as he stepped inside, followed quickly by the softer steps of her continuing partner in crime. Phoebe rushed in to get the phone off the cradle as the boys walked inside. Hair mussed, contemporary clothes in place, judging by their jackets they had already hit one of the frat houses. She could've pouted in Bram's direction if they didn't have a facade to maintain.

The boys drew the eyes of the few females quite enthusiastically. Even with prey in sight, Bram's eyes flickered to her first. Clad in her bat themed pajamas, she could feel the light pink warmth begin at her cheeks and shoot directly down to her toes. Jen nudged her side and twitched her brows suggestively.

"Hey," Bram said, as if they had just met. His hands were shoved in the pockets of the leather and wool letterman coat. Valentine glanced to them and smirked in understanding, taking the phone gently from the sorority girl's hand and continuing on about his falsified business.

"Hey," she replied.

"You must be new here," Jen practically purred. The glamour over her physical appearance fell as Gory's temper flared. With a scoff under his breath, Bram blinked and cast his glamour off as well. The brunette in the chair glanced up and lurched back, "What the-?"

Valentine dropped the unused phone and grabbed the girl closest to him. Gory pounced across the sofa and twisted her fingers Jen's hair, her hand clasping down over the mortal's mouth to silence her impending, terrified scream. "I hope you didn't think you'd get away with making eyes at my boyfriend. That's just bad form."

The brunette scrambled to her feet and raced to pass Bram. He hardly bothered to move, snapping out an arm and catching her in passing with the ease of catching a toy. She slammed her heel down into his foot, earning a crushed airway as he grasped her by the throat. Valentine sunk his fangs in first, preferring to feed and leave rather quickly, but Gory glanced to her boyfriend in unmasked delight. "I like that one. Kill her nicely."

"Of course," he confirmed. The blonde in her arms threw her weight forward, trying to burst free. The terrified shrieks went muffled by her hands, only spurring the fury further. "I have been listening to you droning on pointlessly for three and a half hours. If the taste of adrenaline spiked human blood wasn't worth it, I would've been rid of you hours ago."

"How many times have I told you about playing with your food?" Valentine withdrew to say. The girl in his grasp twitched, sending a small spurt of red from the veins he'd been fixed on. His attention immediately returned to them, reddened mouth clasping down over the open wound in ravenous gratitude. Bram snapped his victim's neck and shrugged, wordlessly giving his other half the confirmation to do as she pleased. Quite happily, Gory jerked her hand sideways and heard a sharp crunch, felt the intake of breath from the sorority girl's lips, and she sunk her fangs into her throbbing veins.

Unfortunately, this one's blood was the vampiric equivalent of water. Refreshing, yes, but hardly an uncommon taste. If it wasn't for the thirst building in her stomach, she wouldn't have even bothered to finish the girl off.

Bram dropped the empty female first and crossed the room to his girlfriend. He swiped a tissue from the box on the coffee table in passing and wiped her lips as she withdrew, dumping the still slightly bleeding corpse onto the sofa. She smiled and pressed her lips gently to his before addressing their companion. "Electrical fire?"

The remnants of Valentine's meal landed at his feet with a harsh, forgotten thump. He wiped his mouth and beamed in delight, "This one was pure. Organic."

"Ew," Gory muttered as she stole the tissue and wiped the corner of her boyfriend's mouth. He smiled. Valentine shrugged, "Aren't there enough of those, lately?"

"Well it's certainly not optimal weather for a meteor," she replied. "Figure something out yourself."

Bram slid his jacket off to drape around her shoulders as he grabbed her bag. "Enjoy yourself at all tonight?"

"Not in the slightest. They didn't even like horror movies."

With a sigh, Valentine sparked the carpet in three places and sighed, making sure to draw the curtains over the sliding doors before he followed suit.


	11. Tears Don't Fall

_Hey, you guys do know you can make requests, right? I'm going to revert back into the writing den after tomorrow for a bit, but if anybody wants to see anything in particular, feel free to leave a comment in the doobleedoo below. Oh, and priority request to the person who can guess which band mused this one._

**Tears Don't Fall**

It was really easy for someone to get lost in the library of Monster High. For a few people, that wasn't a horrible thing, but for most, it was not the good kind of nightmare.  
The elf ran through the oddly spaced shelves, sky blue eyes darting back and forth along each seeking an escape route. There didn't seem to be an end in sight; once she'd run the lengths of the library, she took along the back wall and darted down around the other stacks. If she could cover this wall, she could hug the other and find the front, surely! She raced along the back wall until she saw looming, lingering shadows ahead. She darted between the stacks and turned to weave along the same path, but stopped in her tracks. A wooden chair in sea foam green sat unoccupied in the center of the isle, a book open over its seat and bag tucked beneath it as if it had just been occupied. She turned to dash away, but collided with me.

"Thanks, Whisp. Any longer and I would've thought you were holding out on me."

The dark genie appeared behind the chair and nodded, bowing to her waist with a flourish of her arm. "As you wish."

It wasn't always like that. We weren't even always like that now, all monsters carried at least a grain of humanity with them wherever they went. I don't think we were always monsters, but I couldn't say it was entirely no fault of our own that we became the red-eyed predators taking down the weaker beings with a purr. Honestly, as often as people went missing at Monster High- be it the catacombs or the tentacle creature or what have you, it was rather surprising we hadn't just taken deals with every contact we could find.

Short version: the tentacle monster found the lamp in the deep end and threw it somewhere. Apparently it was pretty traumatic. Whisp got kind of screwed and ended up hanging out in the library maze, playing games with her potential victims. We found a method that would work for both of us. Once her "finders" got wise to what she was trying to do, successfully ending her game, she ran them over to me. Then the game was really over. It wasn't always necessarily me; the way I'd heard it, at least five of my old classmates had taken up contracts with my little Bohemian demon. It definitely worked out for the best.

Her shadows dragged away what was left when I was through. I slid my bag out from beneath her dangling transparent feet as she studied my copy of Dorian Grey. "This is a mortal book," she said. I took my place that she had thankfully held and smoothed down the corner. "Yes, it is. I've had it since its publication."

She leaned back, throwing her arms over the bumps in the backing and staring at my face with open delight as I stood and slid my bag over my shoulder. "Do you have a portrait of your demons, Gory?"

I tucked my book to my side and leaned in close to tap her ice-cold, misty nose with my index finger. "I'm staring at one of them right now."

She laughed, a wicked chiming of bells, mingling with the sound of the actual bell. I withdrew. Monster High probably had one of the only remaining bells in the educational systems, most were just a prolonged beeping like an answering machine gone rogue. The embracing of everything I knew and cared for was probably why I liked this place so much...on good days.

I slipped out between the stacks and up the stairs out of the multilevel, monstrous room. The halls were crowded as usual, practically overflowing. Vampires were graced with a fluidity of movement upon their birth that remained with them, no matter the obstacle; these halls could hinder that. I managed to obtain a few glares as I forced my way through the throngs and across to the less-filled hallway I intended to reach. People at their lockers, small groups of one or two off against the classroom doors and the occasional snogging couple marked my steps in typical, teenage theatrics. If these halls were bad, the cafeteria was unbearable. Our table was situated behind the girls who had silenced the feud between Romulus's pack and our rather fractured little group, so naturally while we observed and kept to ourselves, sociological politics spewed from the other with the force of a breaking dam. It was tolerable, compared to the jocks flexing and referring to each other as "dude."

I slid in across from Bram and placed my book between us. "You'd think the capital offence would be on the part of the person bumped into, rather than the moron doing the bumping."

My boyfriend's lips twitched upward. "Want to go into the city tonight? The Carnival of Night is coming into town."

I withdrew my lunch bag and rose a brow. He reached into the inner lapel of his jacket and withdrew two pristine tickets, rimmed in purple with black, typeset printing across their stark white surfacing. I turned them over in delight to find the heavily face-painted vampire manipulating fire printed on the backside. He beamed, clearly pleased with the delight I felt crossing my features. I reached out and grasped his hand, "We're really going?"

"This tonight, something better next weekend?"

My heart practically stopped. He knew I knew and said nothing more, but I shook his sleeve and leaned in, "Did you get tickets to the Midnight Masquerade?"

His smile grew imperceptibly, but my hands flew over my mouth to stifle a scream of glee I felt rising. I shot off my seat and crossed the table to slide in beside him, peppering his cheeks in kisses. "Thank you, you are the best boyfriend in existence."

"I'm also taking you to Fear on the Pier next weekend. I got paid last night, and we're going to blow it."

I squeaked in glee. His arm wrapped around my back and pressed me closer to place a proper kiss on my lips. The autumn cold that had been seeping into my skin all day melted away. My resolve crumpled like one of our classmates' paper airplanes with the softness of his lips on mine. I drew back gently to steal a glance in either direction. Satisfied we weren't being watched, I let them descend upon mine again. The tender tug of his fangs on my lower lip caused the air to slip free from my lungs. My fingers slid up his shirt to wind in his tie, pressing him closer while the soft, adoring kiss progressed into something much less gentlemanly and refined. We pressed together, a unit again, the tip of his tongue gently teasing mine. He withdrew before I could openly vocalize my enthusiasm. Kissing him left me dazed, reduced to the stupefied grinning of the lesser females around me. Unlike them, he really was something to be reduced to a babbling mess over.

He reached over and pulled my bag and my book over to his side of the table. Everything else dragged along with it. Fantasies of dancing with him to lively, Eastern European folk-pop and the guitar heavy main association to our species danced through my mind with the freedom of a gypsy piper. I laid my head on his shoulder. Nothing could've been better.

"Why all this?" I asked while opening my lunch.

"You've been working your ass off lately. I haven't seen you need this much caffeine since we put together Vampowerment. You need a couple days off." He picked up the grease-laden thing they considered pizza and folded it at the crust, amending, "We all do, but mostly you."

"Biased," I replied. I had never been more grateful in my entire life that my parents understood the requirement for comfort food that came with high school. It was no wonder we all started getting fat by college.

"Totally in love with you," he replied and gave my cheek a greasy kiss. I physically winced. He laughed with his mouth closed, withdrawing his arm from around me to wipe his mouth. He waited until after he'd swallowed to mutter, "Sorry."

"The entire institution is cruel and unusual punishment," I teased. It was better than mortal schools. Not as fabulous as Belfry Prep, but definitely better than New Salem.

"You should've seen what they think might be chicken. Then again, it might be hobo. It might be fried rat. You never know."

I laughed under my breath. Heath walked by and I tapped his elbow. He turned a bit too quickly, almost like he anticipated an interested girl to be summoning him. I composed my most innocent smile, but he rolled his eyes knowingly and placed a finger to my tupperware and flash-heated the chicken soup inside. I ruffled his ginger head, "Thank you, hot stuff."

A goofy smile crossed his face and he pretended my compliment didn't go straight to his ego. Bram rolled his eyes as the elemental rejoined his group at the table behind us. "Please tell me I never have to worry about what you see in that guy."

"Friend material, nothing more," I replied. "Though how _you_'d have to worry about anyone, I have no idea."

He laughed under his breath and offered an earbud connected to his iCoffin. We could both sense Frankie Stein drawing in a breath behind us. "I downloaded new music, but if you want to really drown it out, I'm pretty sure the Night Vale coffin-cast updated."

I glanced back to him while taking a spoonful of liquid and limp pasta onto my spoon. "Tell me why you think you have to worry, and then we can listen to Night Vale."

He shrugged, barely a twitch of a shoulder as he took another bite. "There are just better guys around you now."

I laughed out loud. I think it might've drawn attention from the people not included in our private affairs, but whether they listened or not was not my concern. "Are you being completely serious, Bram? Because I don't think we're living on the same planet, here. We're talking about the people I have to inform about global issues regularly. We're talking about the morons who think flexing their 'guns,'" I gave them air quotes, "will get them girlfriends. The very same morons who think going out and smacking someone so they have to do a complete flip is more fun than doing research and creating a foolproof argument and mentally and emotionally _decimating _someone else. These are the people I'm terrified of getting into the government one day, because they might just be worse than the people we have in now. They might be the last viable generation with any _measure_ of sense, but Satan will borrow my snowblower before they become _anything_ like you."

He ate the scrap pizza in silence, a sheepish, slightly satisfied smile on his lips. I leaned in and kissed the corner of them lightly. "You mean more to me than anyone ever will, Bram. You are kind, you are gentlemanly, you may be depressive at times but you're ultimately still able to see the good in the rest of the world. I buy us matching hats, and you tolerate the gesture enough to actually wear them."

He grinned and muffled his laughter before he slipped his arm around me once again. "I get it."

"No, you don't. If you got it, I wouldn't have to tell you. I love you. It doesn't change, it evolves. We don't even have to talk six hours a day like we used to, we can just sit there in silence and function as separate individuals in the same space. This is different." I could've gone on for hours, but just the inclination to go on as long as I had put more realism to my love than I could've stated any other way.

He smiled and tenderly brushed a lock of my hair behind my ear. He propped my chin up on his fingers and gazed into my eyes. "_I know_. You can never take a joke."

"You shouldn't joke about those things," I murmured, kissing his knuckles. "Congratulations, you've made me incredibly weak and vulnerable toward you. Love is a horrible thing that allows for manipulation by either party."

He took my spoon gently from my fingertips and nuzzled close to me, "But I wouldn't have it any other way. I can be cruel to anyone. You have always been the sole recipient of my affection."

I stole my spoon back in blatant refusal to allow that affection to include feeding me. He kissed the side of my head and gave my waist a tender squeeze. From behind the both of us, I heard a quiet and pointed, "Hey, where's Heidi?"

My brows rose, and my cheeks must've colored because Bram burst into laughter still pressed close against me. "You are a wicked, cruel little monster, and I love you exponentially."

"It was Whisp's fault," I replied under my breath, lest it be heard. His laughter hardly drew attention, but just in case it did, I lowered my eyes in hopes my transgression would go unknown. At the very least, it was a good thing vampires didn't show up on film.


	12. Tainted Love

**Tainted Love**

_Requested by Toby Danger_

At first, everything had been amazing. It took a few minutes for Gigi's things to evaporate from the interior of the lamp, but once they had, Whisp's shadow room became visible. Gigi's disappeared. Everything that she had joined in the creation of was now rightfully hers. She did a physical twirl and landed in a pile of plush, now considerably more solid, purple throw pillows and squeezed them enthusiastically. The joy ebbed off after a few moments. Now what? There could be centuries, even millenniums between finders. And if Gigi's dad came to check on her? What would she say then? Sorry, your daughter's left the lamp and left her shadow to take over as Genie Proper? Thankfully the more traditional lamp got more use than this one. That was not a conversation she was looking forward to.

_I did not think this through._

To her right, a faint giggle came from the shadows under her bed. Brow raised, she reached out and pulled up the cover to come in contact with a few pairs of bright red and gold eyes. Draculaura popped her head out first, waving lightly with a mocking disposition, "Evening, Whisp."

"I thought you went back to your people." She shifted, crossing her legs as the other three shadows slithered out from their gathering and reformed on the carpet in front of her.

"We're not their entire shadows, you know," Frankie said with a raised brow, "You should know how your own powers work. Shadows have three layers."

For a moment, Whisp sat silent. Then, she slapped her forehead and cursed out loud in Arabic. The shadows laughed, sinister eyes glinting mischievously. The genie in blue rose, pulling on her tall braid, "I could've made three of you! Do you know how much that would've helped me?!"

"We thought you made the active decision not to," Frankie replied innocently. Half of Whisp's mind was absorbed entirely with screaming at them, but another part was rather proud. These were her creations, and even though they had cost her legitimate power and the control of an entire world, they had outwitted her. And they did have decent clothes...

"And I assume you're all staying?"

Ghoulia slowly pulled herself up on Whisp's old bed and crossed her legs at the knee.

"Fan_tastic_."

...

"Frankie, where are my shoes?" Whisp called into the center of the lamp. The genie had only just awakened and found most of her hair ties and her shoes missing. Padding out of her bedroom onto the vibrant Persian rugs of the building's center, her eyes widened and she released a furious shriek. "_You demonic brats!_"

Clawdeen froze in place, one of Whisp's shoes dangling from between her teeth like a scolded puppy. Her wide, red eyes were rather innocent as the genie tore across the floor and yanked it from between her razor sharp teeth. Thankfully, Clawdeen released as it was pulled from her grasp and shifted to sit properly on the floor, whimpering lightly with anxiety, as if she anticipated more yelling. Instead, Whisp detached Frankie's arm and smacked her with it before dumping it in her lap and taking the other shoe back.

"Hey!" the shadow shouted.

"Where are my hair ties?!"

Soft, slow, maniacal laughter trickled from the adjoining sitting room and sent a new wave of fury through the genie's body. The white in her clothes flared bright red and for a moment, the blue shocked with purple at the influx of dark magic bubbling to the surface. She charged into the other room, set to shriek, when she found Draculaura laying on her stomach on one of the lounges and Ghoulia braiding her pigtails into rigid braids. Slowly, the fury began to ebb away, replaced by amusement as the tight braids were bound together in an uncomfortable bump against the back of her neck. The shadow vampire swatted at the shadow zombie's hands and rolled over on her back. Her discomfort was visibly immediate, and Whisp grasped Ghoulia's arm gently to guide her out of the room before she woke and her wraith was unleashed. The red in her clothing ebbed off until brush strokes of purple were left in its wake over the white. Clawdeen quirked her head like a curious puppy. Whisp glanced down to her clothes and shrugged a shoulder, "I like it."

...

Twelve moons after the eclipse, Gigi had presented her with a piece of something called cake and a candle, and declared it was her "un-birthday." As per this strange custom, she had blown it out and watched her friend eat the cake, and taken a measure of satisfaction from it. With time, the satisfaction had decreased, but the time-keeping had not. Gigi knew she had approximately seven moons left until the next "un-birthday", but that didn't mean she didn't want to try what she had never been tangible enough to.

After searching for a means to contact Gigi and relinquishing to the solemn fact she was alone in the lamp, now and seemingly forever, the shadows slithered into her room. Two of them were covered in white powder and Draculaura had questionable pinkness on her face. She rose her brows in silence, cradling her pillow to her chest. Frankie and Ghoulia turned to display a baking pan, filled to the brim with the very thing whose origin she had sought, covered in gooey pink and still steaming.

"You guys...made me a cake?" She leaned forward to examine it more closely. Perhaps it contained sand, or Mongolian Death Grubs. She knew she was taking her clothes and her health into risk by leaning in where she could be slammed in the face with the still scalding fluff, but she trusted them with enough responsibility not to hit her when she didn't see it coming.

"You did spend all day looking for it," Draculaura said.

"Our non-shadow selves knew how, so we knew," Clawdeen said, crossing her arms across her chest. Despite her scowl, there was a seeking of approval in her eyes. Whisp's eyes fell to the dish. "What kind is it?"

"Cake," Draculaura repeated, her tone now implying the other female was short of a full deck.

"I know that, genius, what kind of cake is it?"

They stared at her blankly. Whisp rose and led them back into the kitchen, gingerly taking the pan and setting it on the marble counters. She took a polished, gold plated knife- wow, that was new!-and cut a slice. Chocolate, yellow and pink cake swirled together like darkness combating light. She looked at the shadow females again, studying their mutedly interested expressions. Frankie was the only one who showed outward interest, her lips pursed in a bow-like partial smile that seemed like her natural reaction, even darker than her less immortal counterpart.

"Thank you," she said. Her eyes fell, sure that if any Mongolian Death Grubs occupied the cake, they would've fallen out or not survived the baking.

Immediately, Shadow Frankie dashed around to the other side of the counter and flung her arms around her creator tightly. Her eyes widened in shock, partially at retaining the ability to feel and partially at the outward display of affection, but, incrementally, she moved to embrace the less tangible female back. After a moment of silence from the other visibly wounded shadows, she threw open her arm and sighed. "Well, what are you three waiting for? I don't need to engrave your invitations, do I?"

"Nope!" Draculaura replied, bouncing over. She threw her arms around Whisp before continuing, "Clawdeen already scratched plenty in your wall!"

The shadow werewolf looked at her sheepishly and flattened her ears. Whisp sighed softly and counted to ten. "That's...okay. This place needs a makeover anyway. It's _way_ too bright."


	13. Mr Brightside

**Mr. Brightside**

Flowers and red tea light candles in hand, Bram ascended the stairs to the regal Fangtell mansion, running over everything he might've done wrong in the past few days. When she had called, she had sounded torn between agonizing depression and manic anxiety. Shifting the case to the his opposite hand, he knocked at the brass lion and waited. Mentally rehearsing over a generic enough apology to win the return of her affection, he waited. To his surprise, the door was answered by her father. He stiffened immediately, "Is something wrong?"

The elder vampire seemed equally as surprised by his question. "You tell me, I haven't seen her all morning."

The unspoken _her_ released the kind of frustrated shriek associated with mortal women giving birth. Both curious and slightly unnerved, Bram glanced down to the threshold of the new house and raised his eyes back to her father's face. The elder man gestured for him to enter wordlessly, and Bram bowed his head in thanks before doing just that.

"Has she been like this all day?"

Her father sighed softly and twitched his shoulders. "I would be lying if I told you I could see a difference."

Sensing the words as a partial dismissal, Bram strode down the main hall to his girlfriend's library. No sooner had he raised a hand to tap at the door and announce himself than a string of rather blue collar curses emanated from within. A soft chuckle fell from his lips and he nudged the door open before shutting it in silence. Immediately, his laughter silenced. Her fingers were bleeding as she tore a piece of paper into the fire, flaring the warmth in the room again. At first, he thought it was an unwanted letter until he took notice of the work covering every visible surface in the room, from being tacked up on easels and hung off book shelves to covering every chair, table and the floor. Propping a lopsided stack of paper up with his foot, he placed the container of candles down and crossed the room to her while she nursed her wounds. "Not particularly angry at me, are you?"

She turned to him, frustration blazing in her crimson eyes. "I've been working all day and I have a bloody altar due for Dead Languages, and then I decided to take on this little half-assed project at four last night..."

He brought the beads of scarlet to his lips and kissed them away lightly. "This isn't about the government problems again, is it? Because I was honest when I meant you could probably get more drug lords than Canadians to aid you. And if you promised the Chinese consulate you'd pay their debt back quickly, I'm sure they'd be more than willing to help."

"That's next," she replied, laughing bitterly afterward. Sinking onto the arm of a leather chair whose cushion was sinking beneath the weight of her flyers, he wandered over and took one from the seat. "Are those for me?"

He glanced to the flowers and placed them gently in her lap, "I'll get them a vase in a moment."

"I'm already bleeding," she teased. She pressed a red kiss to his cheek in passing, leaving him to read the massive displays. If she was nothing else, she was witty beyond all natural comprehension. **Vampower** was her brilliant headline, and each letter seemed to be personally typewritten. With a glance toward the little machine near the fireplace, he knew for certain what her complaints had been. Each parchment flyer bore hand-drawn golden bordering around the typeset print, and they weren't simply copies. No two were exactly alike. They were personal, and her words conveyed proper passion. Oh, he could tell she'd been on a four-AM second wind when she'd written out the first one and simply copied it...over a thousand times, surely. Where did she plan to put all these? There were maybe three thousand students at Monster High, and the vampire population might've made up...five percent, if that. There were only fourteen to his knowledge in the entire school. It was insane.

_Brothers, lend me your attention for only a page. Our people are divided, that is true, but we can all agree that we have justification for our long-set ways._ A bemused smirk crossed his lips as he sunk down against the bookcases and read the listing. Organized, well thought, well spoken...where was the monstrous little girl who thought she'd recreate Pompeii in the fifth grade science fair? Blood colored, lighter-fluid laced faux lava. God, she'd been the picture of innocence until she lit that sucker on fire. He figured that might've been the precise moment when he fell in love with her. She'd stood by watching the damned thing burn while he made sound effects of the dying paper villagers, and he'd made her laugh. Her big, round glasses had bobbed on her tiny, slender face and her hands with the rubbery red nail polish had been clasped behind her back, and he picked up one of the paper handouts his partner made and sent it sky diving like an aerial reconnaissance plane into the small inferno while the teachers tried to put it out. She'd been gently advised not to enter any more science fairs, but given the prize for historical realism anyway to dissuade her from trying.

He remembered walking her out to her parents' car that night. His mother had told him not to go pestering any girls, but she was one of the ones whose braids he'd never pulled. She looked so nice with a little yellow ribbon pinned to the front of her black tea dress, since she had no more project to pin it to. They sat on a low branch of the drooping tree in the field together and he held her hand. They pretended for years it didn't mean anything, but that violent passion, that burning glee, that had been the start of everything beautiful he had ever felt for another being.

She came back with her fingers covered in superhero bandages, and when he rose a brow, she shot him a look so not to ask. "Nephew over again?"

She nodded and put the stacks as neatly into order as she could. "Do you like it?"

"I haven't seen somebody light this kind of a fire under your ass since they tried to kill off Wolverine in grade school."

She stuck her tongue out at him, cheeks flushing faintly pink. "You'll always have to compete with him, you know. He was my first love."

"You are such a fucking liar," he replied, grateful for the six inch thick walls.

She dropped one stack on top of another and strode over to him. She threw a glance at the lockless door before slinking over his lap and wrapping her arms around his neck. "I'd like to be."

"Fucking a liar?" he teased, "Too bad. You make an honest man of me."

She shook her head slowly. He loved it when she got stressed and disheveled that way. There was nothing more beautiful than her glasses slipping down her face, her hair tied back as best as it could be with a pin against the lower back of her skull, locks always draping forward to caress her sharp cheekbones. He loved it when she went without dressing up, sans makeup and full of vibrant life. Sometimes their status got to be too much. He leaned forward and nipped the chain brushing the base of her neck, reminding her how alive she was right in that moment. She released her breath and drew him in a little closer. He sealed his lips against her skin, tangling his fingers in the back of her shirt as he firmly kissed her pulse. They were both listening closely for her parents' footfalls, but as his fangs found purchase against her skin, she pressed a knuckle to her lips and grinned.

"I want to change the world," she whispered in his ear.

"I know you do," he murmured in reply, forgoing the bite for a tender graze. She shivered in his hold, and he wrapped his arms tightly around her in response. "Don't be offended if the world isn't ready for you yet."

"I don't care if they are," she breathed, "They need me. They need someone with a legitimate mind. They need one person who understands, who went to school and learned the right way, away from all of them. I know what's best for them because _I'm not like them_."

"I know," he replied. The passion in her tone made his skin tingle with more warmth than the fire could generate. "Can I be your First Man?"

"You can be my Only Man," she replied. "If you help me put some of these up tomorrow."

He paused, glancing to the overhanging canvas banner. It was gray, as it would remain, and painted in chilling crimson letters **Vampower** all over again. He snorted under his breath and looked at her, "This is going to be like the time you had those Hamlet puns two weeks after we read it in class, isn't it?"

She smacked his arm and blushed, "I like it. It's effective."

"If you say so."

...

It was long after dusk. He'd stayed for dinner, and he watched the stack of flyers warily as they sat by her bag near the back of the door. Her luxurious bed housed them both, door unlocked as per her parents' rules for having him over, but he'd rather hold her than screw around at the moment anyway. His face was tucked into her neck, each slow breath tracing her hollow lungs from her nose and escaping the same way. If he focused, he could feel the rising and falling of her chest, though he wasn't sure if she was breathing with her diaphragm or not.

"Corsets suck," she muttered errantly as she stared out the french doors.

He laughed. "I know. I have to take them off."

Her fingers tangled with his against her stomach and she turned to him slightly, tucking her hand beneath her head without really propping herself up. Her eyes glinted beautifully, throwing the dim LED light of her television the way her glasses never could. "Do you really think we can do this?"

He laughed lightly under his breath and squeezed her hand. "You have never failed at anything but math. I know you can."

She went red and tucked her face into her arm, muttering under her breath, "Asshole."

He tucked his face into her neck again and closed his eyes. "And you still love me."

She paused, just long enough to make him open his eyes in surprise, before she kissed the corner of his lips. "Yeah, I do."


	14. Snakes and Stones

**Snakes and Stones**

Being with a princess is kind of rough on the self-esteem. I don't mean to forget she loves me, but sometimes it's a by-product of our relationship. Her sister's a witch, her father's literally the most obnoxious dude I've ever met, and I've been in class with some of the Belfry Prep casketball players.

It was Sunday, and the neon green numbers on the microwave were dim behind my shades. It was the middle of the night, and I couldn't take them off. That was fine, tonight especially. The last thing I needed was stone ice cream.

Abrasive light suddenly filled the room and I slapped my hands over my eyes. "Jesus, Mom!"

Her snakes were wrapped up in a scarf, sunglasses perched delicately over her eyes the way Ghoulia wore glasses. As soon as she had tied her robe, she shifted her hand to her hips and entered Mom Mode. "It's a school night, Deuce."

Glasses or no glasses, she really couldn't think I didn't know that. I couldn't stop blinking from the sudden light, but that wasn't what made her turn it back off and cross the room. She slid into the chair across from me and smiled slightly as she put her hand over mine. "Something's bothering you."

"Yeah," I muttered, "My girlfriend's family."

The coiled snakes on her head hissed in understanding. Mine responded, drowning out my thoughts in white noise. I ran my fingers through them gratefully. She smiled lightly, "Is Ramses still hung up on saving for college instead of building a Greek palace? As much as I would love to show him up, I think I'd rather put your future first."

I shrugged and stabbed a spoonful of cookies and scream. It wasn't like he and Nefera wouldn't think we were just trying to save face, still poor and trying too hard to display that we weren't. I didn't have a fucking car. Putting pillars on the house wasn't going to change that.

She sighed and twisted the silver band around her finger slowly. "It's not her family you're seeing, you know. If they don't accept you, that's fine. You're both intelligent young adults, you can make decisions for yourself."

I would've reminded her of how much less young adult my girlfriend was compared to me, but I didn't feel like having to acknowledge that my mom was also about half her age.

"Why didn't I just...?" _See someone else. Like Rochelle. Okay, maybe not Rochelle. But there's got to be somebody who doesn't make me want more._

"I don't get it. I love her. My friends are in real relationships too, but they're not..."

She waited until I found the right word. I couldn't tell if she was falling asleep behind her shades or not, so I hurried up before I lost her interest. "Struggling."

"Are you?" she replied. With a sigh, she unwound the scarf from her head and let the snakes unwind. Three of them went for my hand and kissed it with flickering tongues. She combed her fingers through them and shifted in her seat. "When I was your age, I did some pretty stupid things. I've spent the rest of my life paying for them."

"That was not your fault," I said immediately.

A small smile crossed her lips, "I know. Let me finish. You are in a much better place than I was, that young. You are incredibly smart, Deuce, and I know that you have things you want out of your life. Now, I don't want you to think I'm looking down on this like that silly little crush you had on Clawdeen,"

I went red. That made her smile a little more.

"but I think you need to ask Cleo if she wants the same thing. There will always be a point in time when things get rough. If the two of you want to continue this seriously, I give you my blessing. But if you don't, you won't have to deal with them much longer."

I put my head in my hands. "That really didn't help."

"Then tell me exactly what's bothering you. I am quite experienced in the pitfalls of love."

I put the lid on the ice cream and pushed it away so I could lay my head down on the table. "I told you what's bothering me, I hate her sister and I'm pretty sure I hate her dad."

"Because they look down on you?"

"No, because Nefera's pretty. Yes, Mom, because they think middle class isn't good enough for her. But we're doing fine. We don't need to spend every penny when we get it. Her dad thinks it's still five thousand years ago, and you know what? Even if Cleo is the most popular girl in school, nobody else would put up with her like I do. She makes me hate everything about myself, but she makes me want to be _better_. It's not like I get much of a choice in being in love with her, I just do. And she's not as bad as people think she is." My mother was leaning back, that smile as serpentine and content as the snakes she let free. "She might be kind of demanding and really spoiled, but she's good to me. She puts on the act that she cares about where I take her and what we do, but...the way she looks at me when it's just her and me, it's like she'd give all that up for me. And it's bullshit, I should be able to give her whatever she wants, not make her pick between money and me."

"That's not your choice to make," Mom replied gently. "It sounds like she already made up her mind, if you still wanted my input."

I could've kissed her. I did, and grabbed the carton to put back, "Thank you for making me work things out on my own."

"Take the spoon out of that before you go back to bed." She got up, glanced down to the scarf and stuffed it in the pocket of her robe. "Actually go to bed soon. You still have school tomorrow."

"I know," I replied. I put the spoon in the sink and put the carton away. When she finally left, I pulled out my phone and stepped outside. It was cold, and that might've been dangerous for the reptilian-inclined, but I didn't plan on staying outside long. I held down my C key so it dialed her automatically. It rang a few times and I almost hung up and went to redial, but the ringing stopped. I waited, listening to the sound of shifting in the open air before my girlfriend's voice filled my ear. "It is a quarter to two, someone had better be dead for a call at this hour."

I paused. She was breathing slowly and deeply, almost still asleep. After a minute, she muttered, "Deuce? Is someone dead?"

The shift in her tone made my chest clench. "No. I just wanted to tell you I love you."

She didn't need to be next to me for her smile to make itself known. "I love you too. Aren't you supposed to be asleep?"

"I'm sorry I woke you up. I probably should've waited until morning, but..."

I could hear her shifting. It drowned out the rest of the world. "But?" she teased.

"But I want you to know that. I didn't want you to go to sleep without hearing it."

She paused and the cautionary tone returned. "Is something wrong, Deucey?"

I swallowed my pride and sunk down against the cold stone. "Just thinking."

"Ah. I was wondering what the smoke signal was," she teased. "About me?"

"Always. Cleo...when I graduate, will you still want to be my girlfriend?"

"We," she corrected, "And of course. Dating a college boy? Half the time, Nefera can't even compete with that."

I closed my eyes. Her voice had tapered off into a soothing lull as soft as the royal blue comforter I knew she'd be cuddled into. The stone of a palace was just as cold as the stone of a house in the fall; money could never change the seasons. "And after that?"

She sighed. "Can't we cross these bridges when we come to them? Firstly, it's late, and secondly..." She paused like she was trying to figure out if anyone was close enough to listen, and even when she spoke again, she lowered her tone to keep her words between us. "If this is a proposal, I'd rather not do it over the phone."

"As long as I don't have to be king or anything," I teased.

"I'm going to get you for that when I see you tomorrow."

"I know." My snakes were coiling against my head, huddled together toward the middle of my skull. The heat was starting to escape my limbs, but I tucked my arms a little closer and murmured to her, "As long as you know why I called."

"I know," she replied. "Don't worry about us, Deucey. I don't want to walk away from you to go to class, you won't have to worry about graduation."

"Okay," I said to let her know I understood. She waited before she murmured, "Goodnight, Deucey. And I'm actually glad you called this late."

"Night, Cleo," I replied. "And so am I."

She hung up then. So did I, and I locked the back door when I walked in. I went upstairs and stuck my phone on the charger next to my backpack, and I thought about how glad she might've been. It got lonely hanging out alone sometimes. Ram had to go out of town sometime, then I could hang out with Clawd. And he could hang out with Draculaura, and I could spend the night at Cleo's. Those crappy normie movies always made her laugh.


	15. Awake and Alive

_Hey guys! This one came to me thanks to a prompt in English and my pandora deciding to work to my muse's advantage. Here's that Toralei request. The last one was also a request, as I'm sure you all knew by now (reading the reviews, anyway.) Ghostie, I swear I'm working on the double date, I hope to have it posted tomorrow._

**Awake and Alive**

_Why do we lie?_

It was a simple question, scrawled in red marker and underlined in blue on the white board in Contemporary Horror, but it was a question Toralei had considered many a time.

_"I'm going to the Coffin Bean with Purrsephone and Meowlody," she called into the kitchen while her parents were making dinner. Her younger siblings were still playing outside._

_"Don't stay out late, it's a school night," her father called back. They trusted her. Why, she'd never know. She grabbed her studded jacket and jogged out of the house. She jogged half a block and ducked quickly into the passenger side of the hearse parked at the corner. Valentine smirked, "Ready, darlin'?"_

It wasn't exclusive to her family, either. Spectra was a prying little gossip, anything she could do to throw the ghost girl off her trail had become a necessity. Of course, creating all those stories for her and never giving a motive had caused her to come a bit too close to the truth a few times, but that was where her tabby companions had come in.

_There were thistles in her leggings from outrunning the paparazzo. She sunk onto the back steps of the twins' house and began pulling them free. Her fingers bled, the red seeping down to the interior of her knuckles and dripping from the side. She dropped them off to the side and shook her hands. She kicked the remainders off with her booted feet and brought her blood-weeping fingers to her lips. If a vampire happened to be passing by..._

_The door behind her opened suddenly, bathing the small porch in golden light. She froze. Gingerly, Purrsephone knelt down next to her. "Give."_

_Both twins were rather quiet, but the single-word command served its purpose. She placed her hand in the other feline's and allowed her to clean the wounds. Both twins had been graced with thin and bony fingers that resembled talons more than claws, but they clasped around her hand with an iron grip. She applied pressure until the blood had subsided and rose slowly, giving Toralei time to rise to her feet as well._

_"Come inside and let me take care of that."_

_"Purrs? Who's there?" Meowlody called from inside. She could hear popcorn popping while the scent of heavily salted artificial butter spilled out into the nighttime air. It was cold, and that would definitely be warm. And she could always get a ride home from one of them later._

_Wordlessly, she stepped inside and let the darker twin close the door behind her. Their home was as much hers as it was theirs._

The only people she couldn't think of lying to were the tabby cats. Even when others protected them for their own safety, Toralei had been the one to tell them the truth. It was half the foundation of their friendship, and they knew it was an exclusive privilege.

_"You cannot say a word," her mother whispered to the eight year old cub. "Do you understand me?"_

_Meowlody was the more fragile of the twins, but now she was the stronger one. Toralei nodded, but once her parents had wandered off to talk to the Bengals, she went over to the fair haired child and looked her in the eye. "I heard your sister got sick. Is she going to lose all her fur?"_

_"Probably not. Her doctor said she had a good...whatever word he said. He meant it too."_

_"I had an aunt who lost all her fur and died. But I don't think your sister will either." She grabbed the vertacle bars and shrugged. "If she does, we'll skip school and go hang out with her so you don't have to miss it."_

_Meowlody's eyes got wide and filled with tears. Toralei let go of the bars and dropped to the wood chip coated ground below. The little house cat was trembling, staring at her in shock. She was the slightly older child, so she reached up and grabbed her off the covered metal mesh. The gray furred little girl slid against her chest limply, but she didn't stumble with her. She set her on the ground. Meowlody held onto her tightly, too tight to shake her off. A soft sigh slid from her lips. Well, somebody had to take care of the kid, might as well be her._

It was obvious that Mr. Mummy was going to wait until he got an answer, so Toralei shifted in her seat. "To protect ourselves and those we love."

Her teacher seemed legitimately shocked that she gave an actual answer, rather than a sarcastic remark. He rose a brow and turned his hand, gesturing for her to continue while life gradually ebbed back into his eyes. She glanced down at her blank paper and shifted, tucking the long end of her bangs behind her pointed ear. "A lot of people, myself included, lie to the people we're not close to. Maybe we don't want to be close to them, or maybe we just want them to be a separate thing from what we have close to us. And when we lie to people who are close to us, we don't mean to. We want to protect them from something, or we want to protect what they think of us. We always have something to protect, and sometimes the only way to do that is to tell people something else." She paused and sat up fully. The leg that wasn't tucked under her dangled from the side of her chair. "Life is all about perception. Like I'm sure half of you didn't think I was smart enough to understand the things in here. I'd bet you thirty bucks each that I'm getting better grades than everyone in here, save for nerd boy over there." She jerked her head in Jackson's direction. He raised his eyes from a book instinctively. The monsters laughed, making him flush and look back down, but she balled her fists on the desktop and leaned forward. "And you know what? That's fine. Because I'm going to get into college. I'm going to graduate college. I'm going to go on, probably into politics, so I can lie to you for the rest of my life. You'd never know now, because people are probably lying to your face every day. You're just dumb enough to think they're telling you the truth."

The laughter died. Her classmates looked down at their notebooks uncomfortably. She shifted into sitting up properly and threw her paper and pencil into her bag. The sound of its zipper cut the air, only functioning like the quick rip of a bandaid from irritated skin. "Don't get me wrong, some people are more prone to lying than others, but just think about how much you lie to yourself. You tell yourself you're so different, but you know what? You are different. Everyone is different. That doesn't make you special. You lie every moment of your entire life. So don't go around pretending it's the worst thing on earth. I'd rather live with myself lying than kill somebody."

A vampire scoffed under their breath. She smirked, "Yeah, Huzzah. Get a new vocabulary, Thor, nobody's impressed." Laughter rose again, and even Jackson smiled. "_That's_ the truth."


	16. A Match Made In Hell

_I literally choked at the wordcount of this chapter XD It's been a while since I balanced novel and fic enough to write something this long. Here's Ghostie's request.  
Cleo fan, I shall get to that next.  
Numbervania, no problem. If you have anything else you'd like to see, it might take to a waiting list, but prompts are very welcome and highly appreciated. Gotta keep the mental muscles working :)_

**A Match Made In Hell**

Valentine had once held the rank of the most romantic monster at Monster High, the rank his girlfriend also held before her transfer to Ever After. Though their entire union had been through highly extenuating circumstances, they had managed to make it work beyond all the hardships it had come to face. Unfortunately, that night had been filled with rather unromantic omens. His hearse had broken down just before they were set to go out.. Rather than having Cupid's father drive them to dinner, or (god forbid) his mother, they weighed each of their remaining options thoroughly; stay home, or go out with someone else. They had chosen the latter for the sake of privacy, or really what little they could get away from their parents.

They had been out of her driveway for exactly three minutes before Valentine began regretting that decision.

The only two monsters to tolerate his presence before _and_ after the Heart Incident were seated in the front seats, commanding every control in the outdated vehicle. The heat only reached the two vampires ahead of them, forcing him to place his jacket around his date's shoulders. He didn't speak a word to either of them, but he was keeping a mental tab of every reason to avoid a future performance. In only three minutes, he had managed to accumulate quite a few.

Throwing a glance at the reflections of the disgruntled vampire and the timid goddess at his side, Bram broke into a grin. "My apologies, Miss Cupid. The mortals who designed this model didn't seem to think the deceased would benefit from an extension to the heating system."

"It's fine," she replied. Her cheeks flushed pink as she tucked the rose-embroidered coat more tightly around her shoulders. Her date, however, continued glowering at the backs of their heads.

Gory had managed a complete monopoly of the stereo, as the first to be picked up in their little carpool, and though he couldn't deny the underlying romance of the music she listened to, it was clearly not the taste of his more innocent love interest. He sighed heavily and stared at the back of the vampiress's head until she turned.

A wicked smile danced across her crimson lips, as if she was fully aware she'd been summoned with his mind. "I'm sorry, were you about to complain?"

"Turn the station, Gory," he hissed. His gaze remained locked with hers, a more delicate red battling her deep burgundy. In refusing to acknowledge the delicately dressed being at his side, he betrayed far more than he intended to.

"Why not? She ought to see how uncomfortable you are with who you really are. Or is it just because she's _watching_?"

Cupid's eyes went wide before lowering her gaze. Gory smiled and tapped a freezing fingertip to the goddess's nose, "He's much more of a charmer when he's in the presence of men who wear as much makeup as him."

He glared murderously at his cousin's wide, cruel smile. Cupid slunk down slightly in her seat, her ruffled pink skirt hitching slightly higher up her thigh. Gory's eyes flickered to it, and she rose a singular brow rose before glancing pointedly at his face. She propped her chin on her closed fist and nodded toward the goddess beside him, waiting for a reaction. He inhaled slowly, keeping the breath in his lungs until he had counted successfully to ten without the intent of verbally destroying her as soon as he opened his mouth.

He exhaled slowly and grasped her hand over the console, lowering his face until it was directly in front of hers and his voice calm and gentle. "Regardless of your gender, I swear to the Dark Lord below, if you screw this up for me, I will torment you until the day you die."

She kissed the air in front of his nose. "I didn't realize how much you care, Valley-pie."

Her boyfriend snorted. Valentine released her hand and sunk back in his seat. His date glanced to him, smiling slightly. He rose his arm in silent invitation, and she nuzzled affectionately into his side. The car paused at a red light and Gory leaned over to kiss her boyfriend's cheek. "Since we're all being sappy..."

"Shut up," the darker haired vampire snapped.

"Tempers, children," Bram chided. He removed a hand from the steering wheel to brush through his girlfriend's bobbed hair. "Behave, or you can't have any dessert."

She rolled her eyes. "Then forget yours, too."

The warmth in the face of the goddess at his side almost spurred blush to rise in Valentine's own face. He sighed slowly, attracting his cousin's attention again. "What? The goddess of love can't talk about the physical portion of love? What are we, nine?"

"Perhaps he's right, love," Bram replied with a small smirk flitting across his lips. "The lovebirds may not be at that stage just yet. It does take time."

"I'm sure you held your self control for an entire three days," Valentine replied, glaring at the brunette's angular profile. She flicked him an obscene gesture, unknown to the female at his side, and he returned the same. "If you two don't quiet down, I'll pull over and leave you both in a field to settle your differences. The survivor may join Chariclo and me for dinner."

Both settled in a mutual agreement upon their fairer dates being restricted from spending any time alone without them. Pleased, Bram drove for a few more passing city blocks before he pulled into the parking lot of a ritzy chateau. Cupid perked up instantly, her eyes wide. "I'm under-dressed."

"Aren't we all?" Bram teased. He raised his girlfriend's hand, kissed her knuckles and slipped from the car. She picked up her purse, and, not one to be upstaged, Valentine released his date to step out of the car as well. As soon as he had, she stepped out on her own. He practically smacked himself in the face. "I was going to get the door for you."

"I don't need you to," the goddess giggled, "I have hands."

"She's a real winner, Val," Gory teased, slipping her arm through her lover's. His eyes widened in surprise at the comparison of relative's clothing to his date's. Barely resisting the urge to roll his eyes, he set his jaw in disapproval. Cupid glanced over her shoulder and her jaw dropped at the sight of the vampiress at her side; Gory looked stunning. Sheer black tights slid from her shiny heels up under her velveteen black dress, equally opaque sleeves baring her collarbone and her slender arms while obscuring them at the same time. A soft, red wrap draped over her elbows, and a bat shaped clutch occupied the hand that didn't squeeze Bram's biceps. She glanced to Val, her eyes asking the questions that she couldn't voice. Were they really trying to upstage them, or had he just not passed along important information?

Valentine glared at the couple in their company. When they wandered ahead, he leaned closer to her. "I had no idea, I swear."

She nodded, her eyes falling down to the silver-tipped heels on the vampire's feet in front of her. He twisted a cotton candy colored curl around his fingers, "We can still enjoy ourselves, sugar. You took my breath away walkin' out of that house."

She went pink immediately. "Thank you, Val."

Bram glanced over his shoulder with a slight smirk. "Shall we?"

From the satisfied twitch to the corners of Gory's mouth, both began to fear a conspiracy. Valentine straightened and clasped Cupid's arm tightly in his own, "Of course." She nodded for emphasis, her hold tight. Gory laughed out loud, a wicked tinkling of bells that spilled over from her scarlet lips, "The two of you are _adorable_."

"You're testing my patience," Cupid replied, causing the vampiress pause. For a moment, he feared the comment would start an icy, vengeful future brawl, but Gory was nothing if not cunning. Her shock was replaced quickly with a small, impressed smile. "Of course. You would pick the one with fire."

Bram tugged her arm, spurring her along gently. Cupid rubbed her boyfriend's shoulder, her bubblegum pink lips set in a stoic line. They followed the couple to a small table on the far side of the main room. Valentine removed the chair from its place, his eyes focused on his cousin the entire time his date accepted his chivalry. He sat across from Bram and rose a brow in the other male's direction, wordlessly inquiring about his knowledge of Gory's little plan.

The vampire shrugged in return, his eyes flicking to his girlfriend and back to his friend with a tinge of boredom. Dinner was nowhere near as interesting to him as what he intended to come after, her mood permitting. The irritation subsided. Valentine picked up his blood glass and took a sip as it was placed before him. Cupid blanched. Gory smiled, "She's rather out of place, brother."

The break of social class superiority not only broke the boys out of their wordless conversation, but made the waiter blush. He bowed his head in respect and moved away to retrieve water for Valentine's date. Immediately, he realized exactly what her intention was.

"How dare you," he hissed.

She took her glass in hand, and raised her brows in mock surprise, "What ever do you mean?"

"You know damn well what I mean. All of this. The music, the hearse, the venue, you're trying to alienate my girlfriend. You knew I would dress like I always do, so you picked a nice little _vampire_ spot to eat, and you put on your pretty little dress and your N-I-N in hopes you'd scare her off, didn't you?" Her face betrayed nothing, nor did her eyes. She'd had centuries of practice at the art of deception, so he lowered his tone and leaned forward slightly. "Does the thought of me being with her repulse you that much? Or would you rather have me all to yourself?"

The facade finally cracked. She laughed out loud, placing her glass down to stifle the violent giggling with her palm. Her eyes narrowed with glee, crinkling at the corners with the force of her laughter. Her shoulders shook, and Bram glanced down at the table with a tiny smile. "That is rich," she finally replied, brushing the teariness from the corners of her eyes while remaining careful not to smear her eyeliner. "I haven't seen someone that in love with themselves since Narcissius discovered himself."

"Then why would you go this far to conspire against me?"

"I'm not conspiring against you!" she laughed, "Three out of four of us are vampires! It's not like she's uncomfortable!"

Cupid flashed them both a small smile, "Honestly? It's better than spending time around your place. Between your mom and your clouds, they're definitely the better option."

Gory flashed her a smile. "Oh god, you stayed with him after the clouds? That's usually where the other girls go running."

Cupid laughed in reply. Just when it seemed the both of them could bond, Bram stiffened. "Ladies, will you excuse us for a moment?"

Gory's eyes lifted, just in time for Valentine to hear the too-familiar sound of a door being broken down. Valentine leapt to his feet, and stepped in front of his goddess. Gory removed her heels and handed them off to the other female before shooing her back, "Hang out over there a moment, will you? And don't lose these, they're new."

Cupid's eyes widened, but she went to the far side of the room complacently. Standing in the doorway was a too-familiar hunter, and he was armed.

"Looks like dinner came early," Gory practically purred, taking the center position between the boys. "I've got this."

"Don't break a nail," Valentine quipped.

She shot him a look, but he charged off before she had a chance to reply. The hunter took aim. She raced over the floor and used her bare stockings to her advantage. She slid between the hunter's front lines and popped up between them, grabbing one by the throat and slamming him face-first into the wall. Her lover covered her six, leaving Valentine to act as sole distraction. There were three hunters to a slightly larger ratio of vampires; all he had intention to do was lure the most recognizable hunter away. Then, he heard the crack of a weapon against bone. Gory crumpled, and Bram was left to face two. There were, perhaps, two options, but one was far more difficult than the other. It was a chance he'd have to take.

He dashed into the open space between the hunters. A deafening sound momentarily broke his concentration, but he ducked and managed to force his way between the fairer male and one of his opponents. One hunter went down. Bram turned, grasping the too-close barrel of the weapon at his back, and slammed it backward. The shot pierced the door, narrowly missing him, but Van Hellscream went down.

"Ow," Gory muttered, her hands fluttering to her head. Bram returned to her side to wind an arm around her waist and pull her gently to her feet. She linked her fingers in his shirt unsteadily, and smiled lightly, "My hero."

The world tilted suddenly, and Valentine dropped without a word. When he became aware again, fuzziness clouded his senses. Before he could fade off again, he was awoken by a rather forceful slap.

"That was not _gently_, my love," Bram murmured.

"He fed, now he needs to get up," Gory replied, her tone harsh to mask the worry tangible in her tone.

"Fuck off," he finally muttered. She laughed and hit his chest a little less forcefully. He felt the lukewarm touch of her skin against his own with her body folded down over his, her grasp surprisingly affectionate. He came around slowly and slipped his arms around her in return. He blinked slightly as she withdrew, his sense returning gradually. "Where's Chariclo?"

Soft footsteps approached. He sat up quickly despite the dizziness it caused, and turned to catch a glimpse of her in the center of a cluster of foreign vampires. Her arm had been cut, and a red napkin was pressed to it by her own hand. She flashed him a comfortable smile. One of them sunk down near him and examined his eyes.

"She fed you," Bram said, glancing to the brave goddess. "It was noble, but very stupid."

She shrugged, her pressure remaining constant. "I know. But the benefits outweighed the risk."

With a bit of help, Valentine rose. He closed the distance between himself and his girlfriend before remembering the state his friends had been in prior to his collapse, and he snapped around to properly examine them. Bram wrapped his arm around his other half's waist and a small smile graced her lips; not a mark in sight on either of their flawless skin. He turned to Cupid. Her eyes glinted warmly, "Don't worry, Val. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

He glanced down to the covered wound. She removed the cloth with a small, teasing smile, revealing the rapidly healing wound. "Goddess, remember?"

He nudged her chin lightly, and pressed a warm kiss to her lips. "That's my girl."


	17. Not Another Love Story

**Not Another Love Story**

_A/N- Oh no, not a Christmas story on November First! Ugh, I'm so sorry I didn't get around to finishing this yesterday for you guys. Long story short, my prank flopped and I did some work. Since I'm winding into the home stretch of novel, though, keep your requests coming, cause I need something to do while I redo my house._

Snow coated the dormant grass of the De Nile mansion's massive lawn. The gigantic building loomed like a pyramid over the rest of Salem at the crest of the hill leading up Radcliffe Way. Out of the entire year, the months leading up to Christmas made the house shockingly more beautiful than it was ordinarily. Twinkle lights hung along the ice cicles, wrapped around the massive roof and circled the building's higher points in spirals. They also wound through the fence, and evenly spaced in the trees around the house. The colorful ones were reserved for the massive trees in practically ever window, from every viewpoint of the grounds. After however long as Cleo spent locked away in a sarcophagus, the holidays had built up pace with her until they became her favorite time of year.

Any excuse to decorate everything with gold, I guess.

It was probably the first time Cleo had actually taken more than a command position decorating, though, and I sat on the couch in her library/study/living room (whatever it was), kind of a fixture myself. She had friends over too, and the three were giggling amongst themselves as they decorated one of the ten or more trees.

"Oh my god, is this real?" Lilith blurted suddenly, holding an ornament shaped like two conjoined tears and topped at either end with what looked like frosted platinum. Knowing Cleo and her sister, it probably was. She nodded. The vampire on her other side actually looked surprised.

"So, are you having a party this year?" Lilith asked, setting the expensive little thing gently on the floor.

Cleo brought it over by its braided cord and flashed her an amused smile, "Of course. I want you two to bring your boyfriends too. We'll all host."

"Lilith has a boyfriend?" Gory asked, tossing the mortal a glance. After what she and her uncle had done to us, I guess it was a surprise to everybody that somebody would trust her enough to get romantic with her. The hunter went red and twitched a shoulder. My girlfriend grinned, pleased with herself at the new information. Oh great, now she was fishing for secrets.

"Are we doing all ten by hand today?" I asked.

"There are thirteen, and no. Not in one day," Cleo replied, turning around for just a glance. The glint of her pure, sky blue eyes took my breath away. "Really, Deucey. I'm trying to start a tradition, not engage in manual labor."

Lilith smiled slightly. "We only have one, but it feels like it."

"Hunters celebrate Christmas?" Gory responded before Cleo could get a word in. "I thought you were too busy killing innocent people to worry about holidays."

Being the only human in the room had to be tough; Lilith went red and shrugged, able to keep peace on her own. The vampire shook her head and turned her gaze back to the tree. Twinkling rainbow lights looped around the entire thing, and expensive ornaments draped lovingly from each branch. Cleo strung up a few more before stepping back and allowing the duo to continue for her. "Why don't I get some hot chocolate?"

Despite the quirked corners of the vampire's mouth, Lilith nodded. "No additives in mine, thanks."

Cleo nodded and turned back to me, flashing a smile as she walked past. She didn't have to ask me to follow to get the hint across. Once we were in the hall, she looped her arms around my neck and placed a soft kiss to the corner of my mouth. "I'm sorry. I really meant to have time with you today, but the boys decided to cancel on them and I couldn't let them sulk around alone."

"You're a good friend, for a queen who doesn't need any friends," I teased. She flushed slightly and swatted my shoulder. I kissed her forehead. Instead of going off to get cocoa, she led me down the hall by the edges of my scarf. I let her lead until we had almost reached her room, then I grasped her around the waist and pulled her in close.

"Not now," she murmured. Her eyes glinted, promising things she didn't want to fulfil yet. She took a hesitant step back, watching me with a sweet little smile on her lips, and bolted down the hall. I laughed, fixing my scarf, and chased after her. She raced down the massive halls, their ornate walls throwing the occasional glint of light in passing. She beamed and dashed down the stairs, her soft, black locks tossed back over her shoulders. She'd done this once before, a couple years ago. I remembered being home alone with her, her cheeks still flushed and her eyes lit up with excitment-driven fire.

She paused at the bottom of the stairs, and I stopped at the top. She toyed with the edges of her gold-streaked teal scarf, almost the same shade as the bluer sweater/dress thing she had on, overlapping her dark tights and her knee high brown boots. She was amazing, graceful, and completely in her element. Her eyes glittered like a normal teenage girl, but she was a queen. I took the steps down to her one step at a time, and she backed up at the same pace. Her sky blue eyes glinted mischeviously. "Come on, Deucey. You can walk faster than that."

I waited until I was right at the last two stairs and she nearly collided with the back of her couch before I jumped down, and she took off into the kitchen, arming herself with the box of cocoa before I could get any ideas. I raced in after her and grabbed her around the waist, lifting her off the floor. She released a shriek of joy and clutched my arms, "Deuce!"

I kissed her neck and took the box from her hands. "Nah, I got this."

"Are you insinuating I can't cook?" she teased.

I knew better than to answer. I just smirked at her until she wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed my cheek lightly. "Thank you."

I shrugged and stepped away, but she stayed. My snakes nipped at her fingers while she let them twist around her palms. One particularly nippy one got a flick to the face and I couldn't stop myself from laughing out loud.

"Cups?" I prodded.

She withdrew from the snakes to get them. I poured the powder in first and took to each cup individually, blending them with water and pepperment stirring sticks until they became little more than nubs in the bottom of the glass. Cleo hopped up on the counter at the very end and watched, paying close attention to the detail herself like she meant to learn something from it. After a very long time, she leaned forward and grasped my hand away from the cup it held. "Deuce?"

I raised my eyes.

Lilith poked her head in the door, "You guys aren't...y'know, are you?"

Cleo went red and shot her a dangerous look. The human held up her hands in defense, "Okay, sorry. We were just wondering. Gory kind of heard you two, and...you get it. I'll go."

The redness stayed in her face even after Lilith had gone. I squeezed her fingers again, returning her attention. She met my confusion with her own until a small smile danced across her face. "It's nothing."

"You sure?"

She hopped off the counter and kissed my cheek. "I love you, that's all."

...  
I waited until Deuce and Lilith had to go home to think about it again.

"So, your boyfriend isn't going to be too happy with your dad, will he?" Gory asked, sinking comfortably into the lounge at my side. I twitched a shoulder. "I hope not."

"Ram is being difficult. You know he'll come around."

Even with my friend's reassurances in mind, I didn't want to acknowledge that there was a chance she might not've been right. Taking notice of my hesitancy, she reached out and tried to force a tiny smile. "It will be alright, Cleo."

I stared into the fireplace. Eventually, Gory dropped her hand and simply settled in beside me. She was wrong; this kind of thing didn't just end up alright. Nothing was going to be the same, even if it settled into a new sense of normalcy, and what if my father decided he wanted to leave? What if he found the East less...everything he had to complain about the West?

"You brought your car, didn't you?" I asked my friend.

Her eyes lifted from the fireplace to mine in an unreadable calm. "Of course."  
I set my cocoa down on the table and smoothed my skirt as I rose. "I need you to do me a gigantic favor."

She didn't say another word. She set her cup down beside mine and prodded me to go. I didn't have much time before I could start rationalizing all the reasons why this was a horrible idea, but I raced off back to my bedroom. Gory didn't even have to run to keep stride with me. I pulled the trunk from the foot of my bed and flung it open. I dumped Nefera's hand-me-downs onto my bed and threw open my closet doors. It was difficult, but rash decisions needed to be made. I picked my favorite outfits and wrapped my precious things in them. Gory's brows knit as she perched on the edge of my bed, anxious as most vampires were. "Whatever you're about to have me do, I just need you to promise me that it's legal."

"It's completely legal," I replied. "Now help me pack."

Her dark eyes refused to acknowledge the absurdity of the demand. She rose and observed which pieces I touched before she removed them from their hangers, folded them deftly and threw them lightly into the trunk. We packed it full and left the rest. I packed my bookbag with my iCoffin charger and the rest, and it took both of us sitting on the trunk to make it latch. "Wouldn't Lilith be a better help in a royal escape?"

I glanced back, about to snap out a reply that there was no greater help at espionage than a vampire, but her eyes were dancing. She knelt before the trunk and grasped either side. Slowly, with a bit of effort, she pulled it off the floor with her preternatural strength and nudged my side with its edge, "Go. I'm parked in your driveway."

We ran like spies through the mansion's halls, dodging the posts of my servants and slipping out, undetected, into the frigid winter night. I opened the back of her hearse and allowed her to slip the trunk easily inside over the velvet carpeting, and she shut the doors while I ducked into the passenger seat. Her eyes glinted dangerously as she glanced to me. "Are we picking up Deuce on the way, or is he an afterthought?"

"Pick him up," I replied.

She pulled around the circular drive in silence, but the crunching of her tires on the freshly falling snow was excruciating to us both. As soon as we had pulled onto Radcliffe way and successfully escaped my gates, she glanced to me. "I was young and bold once, you know. Don't pretend you're not running off with that boy."

I smiled against my better judgement. Gory Fangtell had the ability to be cold, cruel and wicked, but when the time came for a wise comrade, she always pulled through. She manually turned on her headlights before we pulled up beside Deuce's mailbox, and I hopped out of the car. We were hardly dressed to impress, but sometimes the bravado only went so far. I raced up the lawn and paused at his door. Did I really want to face his mother?

A snowball lobbed past my head and struck the darkened upper window.

I snapped back in shock and caught sight of my companion packing snow between her ungloved hands. They turned slightly blue with the action. She chucked it with all the force in her body again, smacking the window more harshly. "You don't even know if that's his!"

"Well, we're about to find out!" she replied. She threw a third, smaller in size. I nearly pulled out my hair at the roots. The window was already partially opening when her snowball made its landing, and without a doubt, my boyfriend was the one cursing when it smacked into his chest.

"Gorgon!" Gory shouted, "Get your scaly arse down here!"

He appeared in the window, snakes livid, and then he saw me. I'm not entirely sure what kind of expression I wore, but the softening of his brought tears over my lashes. Immediately, he abandoned the window, and I waited for him to appear. He yanked open the door and I collapsed into his grasp.

"Cleo?"

"We have to go."  
"What?"

"We have to go. Now. Us."

"Why?"

"Just do it, Deuce."

"Tell me why."

"No."

"Why not?"

"You'll see."

He was not a very irrational thinker, but he obliged. He left the door open, and I turned back to Gory as she climbed into our getaway car. The cold was seeping into my skin, but he made it fast. He came downstairs in his coat, with his shirt changed and a hat over his snakes. He brought his schoolbag and his skateboard, his iCoffin and the likes of precious, boyish possessions. When he shut the door, it was the most resounding sound that had caught my attention in a very long time. We broke across the lawn, leaving a trail of twin footprints in our wake. He slid into the back seat, and I slid in behind him. Gory pulled away without another thought. She didn't bother asking where we wanted to go, and we didn't bother telling her. I had the vaguest notion that neither of us really knew.

...

When I got back to Cleo's, I took care of the hot chocolate cups first and foremost. I replaced the clothes she had left in her closet, and shifted things around to make up for the gaps in the objects on her desk. I made her bed, and I finished decorating her Christmas tree. She had instructed one more thing, and I had written it down hastily to leave behind. Call me a coward, but I didn't want to stick around to see Ramses react to it.

_Daddy,_

_I know you mean well. I know you think that marrying this woman is going to bring back something our family was lacking. But she's not my mother, and I'm not going to leave. By the time this is delivered to you, I will be gone. I'm sorry, but I had to get far enough away to have a proper head start. Don't shoot the messenger, she was only doing as I asked. You and Nefera can finish the trees yourself. I'll send you a postcard when the holidays really come around._

_I know you tried. I tried too. I love you, Dad, and Neffie too._

_Your little girl always,_

_Cleo_


	18. Sea of Monsters

**Sea of Monsters  
**_A request made by Abbyswancullen_

"What?"

Deuce Gorgon's eyes remained invisible behind his glasses; unfortunately, that had taught him to say quite a bit in his tone alone.

"I said your sister is coming to stay with us for a while," his mother said lightly, her mirrored glasses reflecting the food on her plate. Unlike her son, Medusa kept her tone indifferent; she was much more inclined to guarding herself than her son. Solitude was a gift after the trial that had transformed her life into revolving around the snake-wielding monster she had become, but it was her son's curse after being presented with it at birth.

"Exactly, _what_? Since when do you have another kid?"

"I don't. Your father does." Medusa raised her face, visibly watching him behind her mirrored shades. Deuce's shoulders tensed. His chin raised and he pushed his chair away, "No."

"We've already agreed to take her in- There is no refusing now."

As he stared at his mother, he considered leaving the table. With all of his youthful being, he wanted to shout to her _why do you still let that asshat boss you around? Yeah, I get it, you love me and you're grateful, and I'm not legal and you don't want any shit, but Percy isn't worth a damned minute of your time or mine, and niether are his kids. His, mom, not yours, not my siblings, his kids. Just his. He didn't want us, why the hell should we want them? _Instead, he just said, "Okay."

"Okay?" Medusa repeated, her brows raised.

"Okay," her son repeated on an exhale. "He wants to play games with us, we'll play. How old is she?"

Medusa shifted in her seat, allowing the guardianship of her voice to fall away. "She's eight and a half, and there will be no games played. She's just a little girl, she didn't choose her parentage."

The teenage Gorgon stabbed his dinner ruefully. "Didn't stop Percy from choosing women after you and Andromeda, did it?"

Immediately, his mother's demeanor darkened. She placed down her silverware and pushed herself away from the table. The snakes she allowed to sit free coiled against her skull and hissed in disdain. Immediately, he rose too, "Mom, you know what I mean-"

She held up a finger and her tone grew icy. "Let me make this clear to you. I loathe your father. I wish I had the opportunity to destroy him all over again the way he destroyed himself after the death of his wife, but I will _never_ place the same hatred I place on your father upon one of his children, do I make myself clear?"

When her son nodded, she stepped past him to pause at the door. "And I expect you to be on your best behavor. She's nothing like him, and she's also nothing like us."

The implication was simple. Still, Deuce had a hard time comprehending his mother's words. "What do you mean she's not like him?"

"She takes after her mother," Medusa replied simply.

The young man didn't have to wait long to see for himself. Deuce sighed and cleaned up after dinner, and while he readied the dishes for the dishwasher, a horn honked outside. Immediately, his mother's footsteps came rushing down the stairs, and she tucked her hair up in a designer hair scarf. His eyes widened. The door flung open, and Medusa switched from typical Greek woman to Maddy Gorgon, monster mom. "Hello sweetie! We're so happy to see you!" She stepped out, and he walked hesitantly down the hall to glance outside. A little girl, no bigger than a flat four feet tall, round-faced and dark-haired, with tiny, wiry little glasses, clutched his mothers serpentine fingers. He watched the childish terror fill her eyes as her strange new guardian paid her cab fair and took the suitcases out from the trunk. Percy wasn't in tow. Hatred burned in the pit of the young Gorgon's chest out of sympathy for the little, mortal child. His mother set the bags on the lawn, and he made himself known. They were tiny, pink, and peppered in ponies. If someone drove by, he was going to take a major hit to the street cred.

The mortal cabbie went pale and leapt into his seat as Deuce crossed the lawn. He checked the seats for anything else that might've been left behind before picking up the bags. The little girl stared up at the twirling snakes on his head in shock, "Woah."

"Deuce," he replied.

"Cassie," she replied, "I thought Daddy was kidding."

"Yeah? We all kind of wish he was."  
Maddy shot him a sharp look in passing. He didn't need to see her eyes to know she was burning holes in his vest with a venomous stare. Somehow, the sweet little girl at her side only beamed. Oh yeah, this was going to be interesting.

...

Remaining true to the theme, his mother had bought the little girl yellow sheets with bright pink polka dots on them. From the sight of her decorations, he bet she'd asked Draculaura's hand in designing things. Maybe a little of Clawdeen's too. But Cassie was enthralled. She raced around the guest room, looking at everything she possibly could. She picked up the dress bodice card holder, turned it in her hands and set it back down. She ran her hands over the princess radio, and the bookcase next to the end of the bed. Her framed eyes brightened in delight at the titles, and she sunk back on the floor with her suitcases. She hardly said two words, but they could both see her enthusiasm written on her tiny, delicate face. "You guys have glasses too?"

"Yeah, but ours are a different kind," Deuce replied.

"Do you need anything, sweetheart?" Medusa continued.

The little girl shook her head and got up from her stack of bags slowly. She blinked, beamed, and leapt onto the bed. The elder Gorgon flashed her son a cautionary look, but Deuce remained in her doorway, watching her crawl around the bed. Of course, she took interest in the monster toys immediately. She flipped and turned the two headed troll upside down as though she had to determine which way it went. Eventually, she looked up and caught him observing her, and she broke into a grin from dimple to dimple. "Am I a science experement?"

He rose his eyebrows, "You are the first human to say that out loud."

She grinned, "I like science. And I like monsters too. Daddy said you were real, but I didn't believe him for a while."

He took a seat on the edge of her bed while she waddled around the floor, looking at everything and moving things around. "So, why'd he send you off?"

She twitched her little arms. "I don't know. I thought it was because Tony Anderson was being mean, but I guess it wasn't. He said it wasn't my fault, though."

Deuce laughed under his breath. "Yeah, he says that a lot." He watched her amble around until she seemed too restless to keep moving, then she crawled up next to him. She flickered her tiny, deep green eyes in his direction and smiled, "I always wanted a big brother."  
He couldn't say the feeling was mutual. The little mortal generated her own heat, and she cuddled up to him like a living space heater. He raised his glasses slightly and rubbed his eyes, and she tried to sneak a peek. His reaction was immediate; he shoved her away and snapped his glasses back over his face. She tumbled off the edge. They both stopped in place, his covered eyes frozen on her, and her eyes locked on his. Most other children would've cried, but she sat against the bed and stared at him. "Should I turn to stone now?"

"Did you see them?"

She nodded. "You have snake eyes. It's really cool."

He stared at her blankly until she brushed off her pants and flashed him a gigantic grin filled with pride. "Wanna do it again?"

"I think one chance is enough," he muttered. "Especially just in case you don't have special powers."

Her eyes went wide, "I might have special powers?!" She grinned even more widely and tore off down the hall, "I have superpowers!"

"Oh boy," he muttered. He followed her down the stairs and caught up when she ran for the back door, "Hey, Cassie! Don't say that around Heath, he'll set your hair on fire or something! _Cassie_!"

_Next: A Rocky Horror Halloween, for totes-Draculaura_


	19. Sensational Transylvania

Sensational Transylvania

_For totes-draculaura_

Most parties in Salem, Oregon abided by one simple rule; don't invite any humans. Except Jackson. The rule was at its most lenient on Cleo De Nile's Halloween parties, but unfortunately, the pharaoh had been overshadowed this year by something far more interesting. For the first time in two years, the Belfry Prep kids hosted the Halloween bash, and with Bram Devein's parents at a business conference down the coast, they had the run of the estate to themselves.

The moment Frankie Stein and her friends pulled into the circular drive of the massive house, Ghoulia sat up and whispered one singular word. "Gatsby."

In truth, that was what the home in front of them looked like. Rather than the vampiric palaces of the neighborhood around it, the Devein manor house was entirely devoted to a show of the most prosperous era in American history. Music blared out from every room, tangling itself among the branches. Much to the small group's surprise, werewolves were bounding into the building on foot, their shining eyes glittering fiercely. Cleo parked behind a row of other cars and slid out without a second thought. The others rushed after her, locking their grouping together as they converged to enter as a united front.

"There is no way this party is outshining one of mine," Cleo commented, passing under the doorway.

Clawdeen grabbed her arm, silencing her immediately and drawing her eyes to the crest of the stairwell. Oh, Bram and Gory had outdone Cleo's party tenfold. They had a live band at the crest of the stairs, amplifiers peeking through the spaces in the railing to blast the music through the house. Holt was off dancing freely with his friends, enjoying the party instead of working it for once. And there, at the head of them all, came the hosts. Their footfalls stopped in unison.

"No way," Clawdeen whispered.

"When she said the theme was Rocky Horror, I assumed it'd be the other way around," Draculaura whispered, her cheeks flushing brightly. Frankie rose a brow toward them both; of course, they had been talking all week about Gory and Bram dressed as the wild Doctor and Rocky, and of course, how appealing Bram was in little gold shorts, but their expectations had been dashed immediately upon entering.

Gory perched on the top of the railing, most of her fair skin bared save for the parts covered by shimmering gold fabric that modeled a swimsuit, or lingerie, rather than an actual costume. Her boyfriend, however, blew them entirely away. Short of dressing entirely in drag, the vampire had outdone himself. A feather boa was draped lazily over his shoulder and slipped down to the crook of his elbow, a loosely-laced corset, fishnets and more presentable- though still risque- coverings than his girlfriend. Clearly, she had done his makeup, his hair, and outfitted him in a string of classical pearls. She wound a lock of his temporarily dyed hair around her finger in a curl and released it teasingly, drawing his attention back to her rather than the crowd. Her glossy, pink lips pressed to his cheek and immediately, Cleo released the most dramatic laugh-sob she could muster.

The vampires' attention returned to the floor, zeroing in on the group near the door. Gory slid fluidly from the railing, linked her arm through her boyfriend's, and allowed him to lead her down the stairs. It struck Frankie immediately as odd; she wasn't one to be pushed around by anyone, for any reason whatsoever. Her display of submission to her boyfriend was uncharacteristic to say the least, but from the devotion in her eyes, the animation could see it was very well given and even more enthusiastically received. They disappeared into the throng of people for a moment before emerging nearby, and Bram tugged fruitlessly at the laces across his chest. "This damn thing is a sin! When I tell you to stop wearing them again, I'll mean it for both of our sake!"

She kissed his jaw and smoothed the piece that caused him such discomfort, "Next time I'll parade you around in your underwear. See how you like it."

"You're the most glorious woman in this room," he retorted, kissing her nose.

"And you're the prettiest girl I've ever seen," she teased in reply.

He bit the air in front of her face, bringing a wild grin to her lips. Her fingers tangled softly in his boa as they paused, both visibly remembering at once why they had left their overseeing perch in the first place. Instinctively, Gory pressed herself closer to her lover as if to flex her full-figured curves. Frankie wasn't sure which aspect of the sight set Cleo back the most; the beautiful female, whose chest was filled out without help from her brassiere, or the male at her side who clearly had never seen himself in a mirror before, and knew how to do his own makeup better than half of her friends.

"You guys look amazing," Frankie gushed.

Gory beamed and tucked an elongated lock of raven hair behind her ear. "Thank you. We're glad you could make it."

"No you're not," Cleo replied. "You just wanted to show off."

The vampiress laughed out loud. "These costumes are the worst idea we've ever had. I doubt showing off was anyone's prerogative but your own, my dear."

Draculaura stepped out of the grouping and did a turn for them. Immediately, Gory's hands snapped back over her mouth and she shrieked with glee, rushing over to the dantier female in shiny shorts and a glittery hat. "I was worried no one else would bother to stick to the theme!"

"We all did!" Frankie chimed, glancing to Clawdeen, who had fluffed out her hair and donned a maid's costume as well. Ghoulia wore the butlers' suit well, and her own costume modeled after the greaser featured only momentarily for a musical number. Cleo and Deuce had been left with the ordinary clothes of normies, something that Cleo had initially opted for since they were the leads...and seemed to be immensely regretting.

"Really?" Gory replied, eyeing the couple in front. "I almost didn't recognize you under the Martha Stewart and Cyclops get-ups."

Deuce shrugged, "I wanted to do Cyclops' again. Cleo didn't want to put on a corset."

"Tell me about it," Bram muttered. He pulled lightly on the restrictive laces and glanced to his girlfriend, "I'm not sure either of us want to actually party in these things."

"Oh I'm fine," she replied, "Now you know how I feel five days a week."

He laughed under his breath, "Don't suffer for fashion ever again, please."

She kissed his fishnet-covered shoulder. Frankie grinned, linking her arm through the vampire's and through Cleo's, "Let's go do something!"

"In a second," Bram replied. He glanced back to his girlfriend and broke into a wicked smile. Her cheeks went red, "Right now?"

He nodded.

"I thought you didn't want to."

"I thought you minded being in your underwear in front of our classmates too. We were both wrong."

The small grouping paused as their hosts broke free and returned to the head of the stairs. Before anyone had time to notice the shift in music, the band had taken up something else, and with Bram at the helm. Draculaura's face went red, and everyone seemed to understand before the young Stein did as well. People stopped moving, and quite a few grew non-vampires grew uncomfortable.

"_How d'ya do, I see you met my faithful handyman. He's just a little brought down cause when you knocked, he thought you were the candy man. Don't get strung up by the way I look, don't judge a book by it's cover, I'm not much of a man by the light of day, but by night I'm one hell of a lover."_

"I can't believe they went this far," Cleo whisper-laughed. Draculaura was just red. Frankie tilted her head slightly as their host took his girlfriend's hand and beckoned for her to dance with him in front of them all. She broke into a small smile, "What's so strange about it? It's Halloween! We're supposed to have fun!"

"Because they like shock value, and trust me Frankie. You'll understand it when you're older," the mummy replied.

Unfortunately, the animation didn't. She blinked and returned her gaze to the couple at the head of the stairs. The vampires around them were torn between disdain and embracing the freedom they so joyfully accepted. And, in her greaser costume, she rushed forward to dance at the base of the stairs with them. Musical laughter bubbled from above her head. She saw Cleo slap her forehead. Draculaura broke into a beaming smile and launched herself up the stairs enthusiastically to dance beside her friend.

"_I see you shiver with antic...pation! But maybe the rain is really to blame! So I'll remove the cause...but not the symptom!"_

The wolfpack erupted in howls of joy. Frankie's eyes returned to her hosts, clinging to each other with mutual expressions of enthusiasm and relief. Some of the vampires they had once flocked to stepped away from them. Some of the wolves they banished flocked over with praise. Frankie's bolts sparked and she raced up the stairs to fling her arms tightly around both vampires. Rather than being met with an expression of shock or even scorn, Gory burst into bell-like laughter and pressed her even more tightly against them both. The ties of Bram's corset cut into her side. She clutched them both with no intention of letting go.

_A/N- Okay brochachos (thanks for the lingo, Heath), with all the computer stuff going on, and I'm intending to download Libreoffice to finish up on the novel (probably by now I have, considering I wrote this entire thing between two free periods), I have no idea when I'm going to be writing anymore. My tech has been off lately (got a new modem/router yesterday. What a night that was!) and most of my friends are advising me to take time off and relax before I put myself on blood pressure medication. But, if there's anything you want to see, feel free to leave it in reviews or on my tumblr. I can't guarantee it'll be done next day, but it will get done._

_Until then, my loves. Thank you all for your support._


	20. Spider-Girl

**Spider-Girl**

_A/N- A combination for you! The next will come up probably at some point next week. And I saw RHPS on IFC last week; it's really hard to find on TV lately. Not very many people find cult classics as fun as they used to._

Not a lot of people had wondered why Wydona Spider kept to herself at first; she had six arms and two legs, a myriad of beady, red eyes and shocking scarlet hair in loose, frizzy curl-waves. Her stark ebony skin was an exoskeleton; she didn't know what color her skin was, nor did anyone else want to find out, and it was cool and smooth to the touch. Obviously, it put off as many people as it intrigued.

All but one.

"You're very lucky you have as many people as you have on your side, you know," she cooed to the half-mortal boy lying in the woven silk hammock at her side.

Jackson looked up from the mortal comic book between them and flushed brightly, "Nah. I don't have a lot of people on my side."

"Liar," she laughed.

He flushed a little more pink and tugged on his bow tie, "Wyd, I'm a science nerd. I get good grades, I help people with their homework. I want people to learn things, not just give them answers. I watch Doctor Who religiously, for crying out loud. I don't have a lot of friends."

Before she could do more than parting her painted ebony lips to speak, they both heard a sharp growl as Clawdeen Wolf and Gory Fangtell strode out from between the stacks of books beneath them. Jackson shrunk at the sound, but Wydona moved to the edge of her web to catch a better view.

"I told you to apologize to my little sister, and I'm _not_ gonna tell you again."

"Jump in a flea bath, Wolf. I did apologize to your sister, I _hung out_ with your sister, and that wasn't entirely magic. She's a greedy little brat sometimes, and she doesn't think things through, but she's not all bad. You of all people get that."

Clawdeen drew in a deep breath, making her chest puff as if she was trying to rival the full figure of the vampiress at her side. Gory's eyes remained on the interior cover of the book in her hands, the synopsis clearly more interesting than anything the werewolf had to say. Sheepishly, Jackson peeked over the edge and balked in terror at the sight. When it became apparent Clawdeen had no intention of walking away, Gory snapped the book shut in her hands and took a slow breath. "I am not apologizing. Do not test my patience any further."

"What are you gonna do about it?" Clawdeen challenged.

A slow smile crossed the vampiress's lips. She turned in equal slowness, locking her eyes upon the werewolf and clasping the book between both of her elegant hands. Clawdeen tensed. Jackson held his breath. Gory took a step forward and whispered inches from her face, "That could go a few different ways, Wolf. But they all end with only one of us walking away."

Clawdeen snarled. Before either of them could react to the provocation, Wydona shot a string of silk from the interior of two wrists. Gory dodged it before it could smack into her designer clothes, her scarlet eyes snapping up to their perch in fury. Clawdeen was not so lucky. The wet silk splattered on her clothes, wound back to the spider girl, and she immediately released a sound of annoyance, "Wydona!"

"Jackson Jekyll, what in Lucifer's name are you doing up there?" Gory asked.

The mortal ducked into the bulge of her net, making himself scarce.

Gory took a slow breath, pinched the bridge of her nose and released it. "More importantly, what are you doing spying on people, spider girl?"

"We were here first. You walked in while we were talking. That's like having someone sitting at a table and having a fight in front of them just because you think they won't step in."

"There's a difference between a table and a pouch you mounted on the wall. In case you haven't noticed, you leave them everywhere. And there isn't a person alive who will treat you like an electron because they don't know where you are."

Jackson went pink.

Wydona quirked a brow in confusion.

Gory took a deep breath and looked at Clawdeen while she tried to pry the sticky, wet spider silk from her fur. When it wouldn't leave her skin, the vampiress shook her head slowly and reached out to her, "You need something to work through the adhesive-"

"I got it, thanks," Clawdeen snapped.

The vampiress rolled her eyes, "No, you don't. You need dish soap or something. Glue-gone. If you keep pulling on it, you'll rip out your hair."

Clawdeen eyed the vampire suspiciously and let her web-splattered arm drop. "Maybe if you weren't two-faced all the time, I'd trust you enough to get this out of my hair."

Gory scoffed, her upper lip curling back slightly over one fang in a slight sneer. "Of course, because you're such a saint. There's a reason I'd rather be around Cleo than you. Being a lycanthrope didn't make you the scraggly mutt you are."

For a heartbeat, Jackson froze. Wydona prepared herself to throw another lasso of silk, but the she-wolf didn't react for the longest time. When the vampire thought she'd won, however, Clawdeen drew back and decked her in the face with the full force of her species' heightened strength behind it. The vampire recoiled, clutching the frame of her glasses and hissing sharply in disdain. Then she froze. Her hold tightened on the book in her hand.

Wydona leaped out of the web and put herself between them just as the book went flying. It slammed into her shoulder with a resonating crack, and Jackson rose from his coiled position.

Wydona released a sharp cry of pain. Her fingers wound in the front of her shirt, and the vampiress recoiled her hands over her mouth in utter shock. Clawdeen grabbed a hold of the insect female's clothes and shot a murderous glare in the vampire's direction.

Bravely, Jackson rolled off the edge and jumped down, barely catching himself on his feet as he landed. "See what you did?" Clawdeen snapped, her eyes murderous.

"I didn't mean to!" Gory snapped, "Put some webbing on it."

"The home remedies aren't going to cure a broken exoskeleton!" Clawdeen snapped.

"Guys," Wydona whimpered.

"Oh shit," Jackson breathed.

The females might've continued arguing if they didn't notice the slowly spreading red in the front of her shirt. Immediately, the vampiress smiled, "Good, it drew blood."

"How is that good?!" Clawdeen snapped.

Gory rolled her eyes and reached for the edge of the insect's shirt, "May I?"

Wydona's eyes flickered to Jackson, but he shrugged as if to say "if she didn't kill you by now, she probably won't." She nodded, and the vampire pressed a finger to her fangs and pressed it under her collar. Wydona could feel the lukewarm liquid seeping along the tear in her outer shell, mingling with her own, and slowly, it began to stitch together. A slow breath of relief slipped from between her lips. "Oh thank god."

"You're welcome," she replied without being asked.

All of the spider girl's eyes locked on the vampire's face. Gory took the book, glanced at Clawdeen and snapped, "If you value my apology to your sister so greatly, I will. Just keep in mind the spider didn't cry."

"I'm not a..." Wydona began. Quickly deeming it irrelevant, she allowed the vampire to slip away without another thought. Clawdeen lingered a little longer to make sure the bleeding stopped before she awkwardly slipped away.

Jackson sighed and folded his arms across his chest, "Was nearly getting killed really worth making them stop fighting?"

Wydona shrugged, "Sometimes you have to get involved when people don't want you to watch them."

Jackson glanced to her and reached out from his carefully composed isolation. She tugged her collar aside and let him see the healing split. He nodded, his brows crinkling with worry, "Do you think you're going to get temporary powers or anything?"

She glanced at the interiors of her wrists and turned her eyes back to him- all of them. "Seriously, Jackson? Bitten by a designer vampire? I wasn't even bitten. And I don't think taking a bicycle pump to my ego is really a super power."

He laughed out loud and wrapped his arm tightly around her shoulders. "See, that's why we're friends. And...I need you to go back up and get my comics. I left them in the web."

She rolled her eyes, crossed two of her arms over her chest and put the rest into swami hand gestures, "As you wish, finder."

"Racist," he replied.

"Sexist," she retorted.

"How am I sexist?" he responded, "You must have the wrong personality."

Airy happiness flitted across the insect monster's face, and she ruffled the boy's bleach-dipped bangs. "I must. Sometimes I forget there are two of you."

She repelled up the wall on a strand of web, grabbed his comics and jumped back down. Before they could assemble where to go to meet up after class, the fresh sounds of lockers slamming in the hall reached them both, and raised, female voices were joined by male ones. Both of their eyes widened and Jackson glanced to his friend in obvious fear. "If Clawd goes at it with Bram..."

"The pack and the vampires will get involved," Wydona finished for him.

They both forgot about her previous injury immediately and raced up the stairs and out of the library to stop an impending feud from stirring up again.


	21. A Matter of Pride

**A Matter Of Pride**

Back in the day, a lady chose a color of ribbon to place around the arms of the men she wanted to represent her family, in hopes they would become the new champion at whatever sport they played. I guess it was part of the reason why I started fear-leading in the first place; ruffling poms made of paper seemed a more practical alternative to looping ribbon around my chosen champions. I quit after the first two years, though. The work outweighed the satisfaction. Even after, I kept showing up to his games. Honestly, we both hated American sports. It wasn't the premise of sports that got under our skin, but that Americans had no idea how to play them properly. There was little sportsmanship, and every event was turned into some massive show of idiocy. There was nothing honorable about the American institution of sport, but that was probably why when Bram joined the Monster High casketball team, it was one of the best things to happen to them since the Wolf children were enrolled.

That first year, they never lost a game thanks to the combined forces of the former Belfry Prep team and Monster High's already decent lineup. Two years and some roster changes since, and it was our last season. We really wanted to graduate this time. I was sitting on the sidelines amid the sea of undulating purple and black, in my tight black jeans and wine colored sweater. Everyone else was on their feet, but I was waiting to stand. Vampire Academy had the ball, and we were down by seven. It was the fourth quarter, and there were two minutes left in the game. The paper-shaking little pep squad could only do so much.

When Coach Igor called a time out, I slipped down between the side rails. Bram stepped past his group and met me just behind the benches. I slid his still-frosty thermos into his hands and brushed the sweat dampened hair off his neck while he took a prolonged drink. A small river of red blood traced his jaw, but only momentarily. He wiped it away and passed the canister back to me. "Wolf keeps blocking my play. I can't force him to get out of the way or the other team will call us on it."

"You would think in a game like this, powers would make the playing field rather even."

He scoffed under his breath. I ran my fingers over his flushed skin. His cheeks had become rather pink, not the healthiest sight for a vampire. I kissed his nose and did my best to keep an optimistic smile on my lips, "Careful not to overheat."

"What are you, my mother?" he teased. "Stay until the end. I need my good luck charm."

I kissed his lips lightly. "For luck."

He broke into a grin.

"Devein!" Coach Igor called.

I released my hold on his jersey and took a step back to rejoin the crowd in between two of the recent transfers. He joined their lineup and shook the sweat from his elongated bangs, his eyes flickering to the massive wolf at his side. He said something, but it went inaudible over the din at my back. Too much noise surrounded me to focus on the larger picture, under times of great stress, it felt as if we were the only people in the world. They broke their circle to return to the court, switching Heath out for his newly-shifted elemental cousin.

Clawd made a three point shot in the next few moments. Then the ball was stolen, and we were back down to five behind. It became a struggle to keep the ball out of either basket after that. As soon as one boy would have his hold on it, they would struggle to go until Deuce got it again and threw it wildly through the air, managing to sink another shot into the other team's basket. Holt was shoved aside on a foul, giving our team an opportunity for a three pointer. It was much more tension than it seemed to be worth, because up until the final buzzer, they were locked in their struggle to play keep away. With their tie, overtime was called, and I caught sight of the fear squad huddled together for some gigantic fiasco or other. Clawd ducked out to consult his sister. I tucked Bram's thermos into my arm and waited, but he didn't break from his huddle. The other team rose their brows in the direction of the pitiful band of misfits struggling to endure combat. I stepped out to him.

"Sweetheart, I'm a bit busy," he said before I could utter a word.

Silently, I slid my necklace from around my neck and looped it over his. He paused when the cold metal hit his flushed skin and glanced back to me.

"There are men out there who don't think you're going to be a champion," I said simply. "Go prove them wrong for me. Properly."

His fingers traced the small pendant against his collarbone and he nodded slightly. Immediately, Cleo wrapped a bandage around Deuce's forearm. Draculaura slipped one of her sparkly barrettes into her boyfriend's hair. I rolled my eyes at the imitation, but turned away from their mimicry in favor of passing the thermos into his hands once again.

"For Lilith's sake, I have spent four years involved in sports for you. Make the playoffs, or I'm going to be cardinally pissed."

The irony of my statement didn't go unnoticed. He smirked, took a long drink, and passed it back to me with a nod. Like a true knight of caliber, he clasped a hand over his chest and bowed, "Of course, my lady."

"_My lady _me all you want later. Go out there and beat the bow ties off those prep school brats."

Alright, so Americans weren't entirely incorrect. When it came to war, the gloves of formality had the tendency of getting lost. Bram flashed me a wicked, boyish grin and turned back to his teammates. Not all of them were blessed with the driving force of a good woman at their back, but when they all looked to me, I shifted my hands to my hips and met each of their eyes individually.

"I can't promise you any of my friends will be interested, but they might be so inclined if you actually win."

They let out cheers that rivaled the affirmatives of soldiers at war, and grouped together for one last hurrah before taking to the field. This time, I couldn't bring myself to rejoin the masses behind me. I rested my hand on Heath Burns' shoulder for support, watching as they tore across the court with renewed vigor. The grappling for the ball became more fierce. First to the next basket won. Vampire Academy made a shot, but Deuce jumped to block it. Clawd caught the ball and passed it halfway down the court to Bram, and he passed to Holt only to have it stolen before Holt could pass it along again. The battle of wills lurched sickeningly back and forth across the court for as long as the boys could struggle without becoming violent. Finally, Holt ducked between two vampires shielding each others backs, and chucked the ball at my boyfriend with a wild scream.

Bram caught the ball and sunk it into the net above.

The buzzer sounded.

There was a complete moment of silence, and then the outburst of the monsters at my back seemed to shake the foundations of the gym to its very subterrenian depths. Heath leaped to his feet in full flame, and nearly threw himself into embracing me. I slipped by and raced out into the throng of retreating undead to meet my champion ahead of the crowd.

"What did I tell you?!" he shouted, grinning from ear to ear. Like a new patriot, he wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted me slightly off my feet. I laughed, returning the embrace around his neck, and pressed my lips firmly to his.

….

"I always wondered why you quit fear-leading," he murmured into my ear as we slipped from the stuffy gymnasium into the crisp autumn air. "I suppose it just wasn't honorable enough motivation for you."

I laughed under my breath. "Honorable motivation?" I slipped my fingers beneath the chain and held the weighted stone above his skin. "I had no such honorable intention in making you win. Don't think for a second that I don't want to be the girl whose boyfriend made the winning shot. It makes us relevant again."

His eyes sparkled. "Sure. You spent four years watching me endure game after game so we could be relevant. Gory Fangtell, as your boyfriend, I must say... lying is the thing you suck at most."

_A/N- Well, being sick this past week made me take the first vacation I've had in years. I can't say I didn't enjoy it. Just remember, requests are constantly open :) And thanks so much for the kind words._


	22. Personal Space

**Personal Space**

"How was school?" Mrs. Webber asked as Gil stepped in through the side door. He set down his bag on the table and restored the pressurized locks between his gill pods and the helmet itself. He stepped over to the sink when she stepped away and released the top, sending water gushing from his scaled face into the sink.

"Alright," he replied, finally free of the garbling liquid. "How was your day?"

She shrugged, "The usual. Your laundry is on your bed."

With his helmet in hand, he picked up his bag and threw a nod at her back. He discarded both and his jacket in the hall closet before heading up the stairs, massaging the pods against his neck all the while. Of course, they fed his gills the necessary fluid to keep him alive, but they were a difficult upkeep. For the longest time, he wanted a bed for the less-than-practical purpose of sleeping, but he'd quickly decided it was not the best idea for much besides studying and relaxing. So when he went upstairs, he immediately locked himself in his bathroom and immersed himself in water up to his throat- enough to appease the need to breathe without the pods attached.

Sometimes he thought about the bullet he dodged once that curse of a wish was called off. Poor Lagoona. She had no idea what she was getting herself into...and neither did he, by any chance. But sometimes he liked to think he could keep being the guy who found a saltwater army to rescue her with. He liked to think he would've swam all the way out into the middle of the Pacific to flag down a cargo ship if he had to. He would've done anything to rescue them then. He would do anything for her now. He would just rather not get...thrown out, or cut off, or disowned. Moving away didn't work the first time. Grounding wouldn't work now.

He slid under the water, inhaling deeply with delight. Sure, he was kind of a rebel. He stood up to his parents on a regular basis. There was no reason for the ghouls not to believe the rap album excuse. Lagoona had!

His thoughts drifted over the myriad of hopeful situations he hoped he and his saltwater lover could end up in, be it in a house with a matching set of pools beside each other or compromising on one or the other. He sighed, allowing bubbles to slip up to the surface, and opened his eyes only to release a new torrent in an aquatic utterance of surprise. His mother leaned on the edge of the bath, staring down at him. He surfaced immediately, "Mom, what-?"

"Did you do your homework?" she asked immediately.

"Yes," he replied, still spluttering, "What are you-?"

"Put your clothes away?"

"Yes! Now what are you doing in my room?! I locked that door!"

"I put that lock on it," she replied. "I don't want you getting lazy now that swim season is over."

He stared at her with his jaw slack for a moment before sinking back down under the water. As soon as she left and the sound of both doors closing reached his ears, he released a torrent of bubbles in a frustrated scream. It shouldn't be possible, humanly or otherwise, to have parents as annoying as that! Clean your room, Gil (even though it's already clean)! Do your homework, Gil (that you had time to do in Study Howl)! Don't see that girl, Gil, she's a _saltwater_ monster, she's _dangerous!_

"The day I snap," he bubbled, "I will be, too."

The door below shut, and he heard his father call out into the main house. He could've grabbed his fins and pulled them completely off. If he got up now, and went to go sit at that table, it would be like walking out of the Technicolor world into Pleasantville. So he procrastinated, laying at the bottom of the tub for as long as he possibly could, until he heard his mother's voice with extra aquatic sharpness.

"Gil! Your father is home! It's time for dinner!"

Thankfully, his pants felt weighted as he surfaced. He dumped the water in his pods in favor of a refresher, and changed into a fresh pair of swim trunks.

The boy in the mirror was not someone he was particularly proud of. Sure, he was a great swimmer, but he was scrawny and average looking. He felt like he weighed about as much as Jackson, and probably the only thing keeping Manny Taur off his case was the half-normie. He tried to flex muscle he didn't have, but his lean arms barely seemed to tense. If he had better muscles, he might've gone downstairs without a shirt, but for the sake of his dignity, he donned one and shuffled down the stairs with still-wet feet squelching on the hardwood.

"Oh for god's sake, Gillington," his mother said immediately upon his entrance. "Why don't you dry off?"

"Because I'm a water monster," he replied, sliding into his seat. Both of his parents looked at him like he was insane. He stabbed a steamed kelp roll vengefully with his fork and waited until the awkward silence passed, but his eyes betrayed him, and flickered upward before he wanted them to. His mother was cutting his father's food while he waited to eat as if nothing was wrong.

"You two are nuts," he finally muttered, the action reaffirming his beliefs up until that point with solid proof.

"Excuse me?" his mother asked, looking up from her duties.

"You two are nuts," he repeated. "Dad's a grown man, and you're cutting his food for him. It's no wonder when Lagoona was under that crazy spell that you liked her so much. It's not about races, you're just...that's not right. That's not how relationships work."

They glanced at each other and Mr. Webber put his elbow up on the table. "Alright then, expert. How are relationships supposed to go? Because your mother and I have been happy for a very long time."

"Well for starters, you should probably cut your own food. And why can't Mom work? Because she's a girl, or because she had me? Is this going to continue after I graduate and leave? Because this is a serious issue. You're not supposed to wait on him and he's not supposed to be totally dependent on you, or vice versa. Where's the challenge? Besides him having a job and you doing everything...what do you guys have to offer?"

His father's brows furrowed. His mother set down the fork and knife on her husband's plate and walked around to her son. Gil blocked his plate from her gaze, but she wiped her hands on her apron and leaned in close to him. "When you're our age, you'll understand."

"I'm sixteen, Mom. I know the square root of pi and how to solve a polynomial integer with variables. I can jump start a car. I'm not four. I've been in the same relationship for _two years_. That may not be a lot to you, but it is for me. And I'm pretty sure it's going to last a lot longer than that, especially considering her parents like me more than you seem to."

"What?!" Mrs. Webber exclaimed, "How could you ever say something like that?!"

"Now listen, young man, your mother and I-" Mr. Webber continued.

"If you really loved me, like parents should love their children, you'd accept my life choices. Mr. D doesn't necessarily approve of Draculaura not drinking blood, or dating a werewolf, or going out in the sunlight, or being happy, or any of the things she does, but he's her father and he loves her, and he lets her do them because he _wants_ her to be happy. Because that's the life she's chosen for herself. And if the vampires and the werewolves can get over their differences, why can't you?"

"Because that girl is too dangerous for you! She pushes you around, and she doesn't treat you very nicely, and you're a very fragile boy, Gillington-" His mother reached out to fuss his hair and he let out a sound of frustration, balling his fists against his fin-hawk before letting them fall open on the table, "GIL, MOM, _GIL_. MY NAME IS _GIL_. You couldn't have named me anything less embarrassing than _Gillington_?!"

Both of his parents paused to allow him the time he needed to search for words. He stood up slowly, pushing his kelp roll and marinated fish away with disdain. "I'm only as fragile as you make me. My guy friends eat real food. And I don't want a girlfriend who's going to sit there like a backpack and be my accessory. I want Lagoona because she's honest with me. She makes me feel brave, and she makes me fight for what I really want. I _love_ that girl, Mom. And if you're going to make me choose between you and her...I'm gonna choose her."

Mrs. Webber withdrew her hands and sighed. Her husband smacked the table to draw their attention, "Now see here-"

"Roger, let it go," she sighed.

He rose his scaly brows in surprise.

"He's been head over fin for the girl for years." Her attention returned to her son and she sighed slowly. "It's our job as parents to try to guide you to being the kind of person we hoped you'd be. But, you turned out to be a very good young man. And maybe...maybe we should trust your decision."

Gil's brows rose. "Really?"

His father's eyes widened, "Really?"

"Really," she confirmed them both. "If _Vlad _is really allowing his daughter to go see a werewolf and abstain from blood, well...we can't argue with Gil much. He's not going on a hunger strike."

A small smile dawned on the young man's features. "So...does this mean I can have Lagoona over for dinner sometime?"

"Yes, but I don't want to fry any barbies on the dingo, make sure that's alright."

If he had the exasperation left to slap himself, he would've. Instead, he turned around, stepped outside, and burst into laughter.


End file.
